(WXYZ) — The warmer weather means summer storms are likely on the horizon for metro Detroit. DTE tells 7 Action News that last summer brought some of the most severe weather in the company's history.
DTE says about two-thirds of the outages that customers experience are because of trees, so year-round maintenance, keeping them trimmed, is part of that storm preparation.
“Last year, when you look at the storms and the severity of the storms all last year, that sort of combination was unlike anything we’ve ever seen in our hundred plus years at DTE," said Matt Paul, DTE executive vice president of distribution operations.
And DTE is expecting more severe weather this summer. Paul says the power company is noticing a trend. Because of that, since last fall, it’s trimmed 5,000 miles of trees and conducted 2,000 miles of “pole top” maintenance, strengthening the infrastructure.
"In those areas where we’ve done that work, we’ve seen about a 70% improvement in reliability. So we expect many of our customers, in fact, most of our customers should see, have a much different experience this summer during storm season," said Paul.
A more resilient experience during high winds and heavy rain.
With more people working remotely, Ryan Miller with Employment Boost says outages can hamper an employee’s productivity and ultimately the company.
“When there are options such as going into a shared office space or having your own office space, there’s little bit more flexibility there that business owners have. Office buildings have a tendency to have backups, internet companies will offer business owners data plans that can backup … when their internet goes out as well," said Miller.
Transmission lines are also in the path of a storm. The power company ITC says aerial inspections are conducted twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall.
"So, we put two people up in the helicopter. One is a lineman that’s looking really at the equipment and then a forester who’s looking at veg around the structure, so trees," said Joe Bennett, vice president of engineering at ITC.
He adds, “we want to look at our lines before the hot summer months happen and our lines are under the stress of extra loads.”
