LANSING, MI – Consumers Energy wants to raise electric rates by $436 million, its largest ask in at least 20 years.
The for-profit utility, Michigan’s second-largest power provider, kicked off the process of asking regulators permission for the hike on Monday, June 2 — the very first day this year it was legally able to under the law.
“This is at least among the largest rate hikes Consumers has ever requested, if not the largest itself,” said Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel in a statement released Monday afternoon.
Nessel said her office would scrutinize the rate hike request and would not be deterred from protecting Michigan utility ratepayers “from corporate greed and endless, increasing rate hikes.”
Michigan law prohibits utility companies from filing new rate requests more frequently than once every 12 months. Consumers’ application on Monday came 367 days after its last one — the first business day after the one-year clock reset.
This will be the sixth year in a row Consumers sought to raise power rates. The utility says the increase is necessary to continue fulfilling its “reliability roadmap” meant to dramatically reduce outages by replacing aging power lines, transformers and other equipment.
