DTE to take over Detroit electricity service

[Vic01]

The city will move toward no longer providing electricity to city customers and allow DTE Energy to do so, emergency manager Kevyn Orr said Thursday.Orr sent a notice to DTE Energy saying it will begin winding down its electricity distribution and transmission service over the next five to seven years.
Detroit will phase out providing energy through the Public Lighting Department to approximately 115 customers at 1,400 sites throughout the Metro Detroit area. Customers include Wayne State University, the Detroit Public Schools, Joe Louis Arena, Cobo Center and the Detroit Institute of Arts.

The system has been a financial burden on the city, operating at an annual loss of approximately $150 million over the past five years, officials said.

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...#ixzz2XSyq7Dnp

[DetroiterOnTheWestCoast]

Sounds like a good move if its been that big of money loser.

[Wesley Mouch]

Clarification: Its misleading to say DTE will provides power to city customers. From their website:

With a citywide power distribution system, the Department now serves more than 890 public buildings. The Department's customers are various City departments, the Detroit Board of Education, Wayne State University, Joe Louis Arena, Wayne County Community College District, Cobo Conference/Exhibition Center and other federal, state and county agencies.

They don't mention that they power most if not all police and fire stations. And of course streetlights.

This is the poster child for something that Detroit should have 86'd years ago.

[antongast]

So when do they start repossessing our streetlights?

[313WX]

So when do they start repossessing our streetlights?

The city plans to do that with half of the streetlights itself.

I'm still waiting to see what neighborhoods/commercial strips will have to go without streetlights. No way are all of the outages in abandoned neighborhoods.