Ice storms, flooding, mudslides, high winds…. It’s winter of course, but with aging power grids and increases in demand, power outages are once again making the mainstream news cycles. This time, California and Michigan took the brunt of it with the usual suspects in reports once again.
Michigan’s DTE Energy and Consumers Energy faced the most issues with a total of more than over 150,000 customers sitting in the dark. Power outages continued into the weekend and spilled over into Monday with forecasters calling for more snow and ice with a new storm on the horizon.
Snow and ice were the culprit this time in Michigan. These storms are creating more challenges for power companies, which are already under fire, and expected to experience a barrage of criticism and questions this week about power reliability and their energy cost, according to the Detroit Free Press.
"Crews will continue working around the clock to restore power to all remaining customers who experienced an outage during the storm," a spokesperson for DTE said Monday, also warning about the new weather forecast. "We know power interruptions are difficult for our customers; that’s why DTE is investing over $1 billion per year in electric infrastructure upgrades."
California’s Pacific Gas & Electricity (PG&E) can’t buy a win either with another 36,000+ clients without power from the last “historical” storm to blow though the Golden State. Despite mobilizing personnel ahead of the large storm that hit this past week, PG&E still saw numerous customers go without power. Snow fell as low as 500 feet in some spots of the state and blizzard warnings were issued for area mountains for the first time since 1989. The San Bernardino Mountains are situated about 60 to 90 miles east of LA, with peaks as high as 11,502 feet.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is a combined natural gas and electric utility serving more than 16 million people across 70,000 square miles in Northern and Central California. For more information, visit www.pge.com/ or for the latest news visit http://www.pge.com/about/newsroom/. The utility also offers an e-mail alert newsletter to keep customers up-to-date with breaking news on outages or rolling blackout information since power issues are becoming such a common problem.
If you have a business and do not want to be prone to blackouts or power outages, losing money and productivity, consider an industrial or commercial generator. If you have a home in these regions that deal with power outages often, check out the home standby options at Generator Mart. Food in your refrigerator can spoil in as little as four hours while a freezer can keep food cool and safe to eat for about 48 hours. Even more reason to invest in a generator today.
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