DTE blasted by MPSC over tree trimming operations

[Willi]

Michigan Public Service Commission has said that DTE
– does not – do enough to trim trees near power lines.
Land near waterways poses unique challenges of who owns what
and which easement rights of access need to be observed.
Trees grow well where water is abundant and plentiful.

People are sick and tired of loosing power, running generators,
hearing the noise of the neighbors generators all around them ,
loosing food in freezers, etc., etc.


An article written by Jay Greene in Crain’s Detroit Business
published December 05, 2014 goes on to describe how the
state commission has criticized DTE’s track record on tree trimming.

[sumas]

Amen brother. I asked DTE to be proactive. Pole to pole lines in the alley. One hundred plus year old trees hanging on lines. Got a reference # and that was it. Maybe if they are responsible for food loss etc they might do something. Lost power last month for 5 1 /2 days- Dte sucks

[MikeM]

And?.............

[sumas]

Not sure what you mean by And ?????????? We live on a fixed income don't get food stamps and hurts to lose everything in the fridge. Tried ice to save food and it didn't work.

I love to cook and contribute to food banks and fund raisers with baked goods. My larder still looks bare. I refuse to lose more food so buy as needed.

Have several hanging trees creaking and groaning over lines in the alley. Non of which are my trees. We take care of our business. However many neighbors are elderly and can't do what we do. It is DTE's responsibility to maintain those easements.

[Willi]

DTE is about profits for shareholders

Where a tree is located SHOULD be irrelevant pertaining to a paying customer with brick/mortar house address or business

When a tree limb falls killing the power everyone near that substation feels the pain

[Dumpling]

In Detroit there are more invasive trees along the power line right of way behind the
houses. I am particularly impressed with that small-leaved "elm" tree that stays
green through November, tacking on an extra growing month to keep its head start
over other trees. There are fewer occupied houses as well due to house rage and
all other causes.
I had a neighbor who contacted DTE continuously about when they could cut the
willow tree branches that were laced among the power lines. She always received the
answer that they would cut them when they cut all of the trees in the neighborhood.
Contractors would be seen cutting branches elsewhere in the neighborhood. She ended
up killing the willow tree herself somehow - it survived the girdling, must've been a
massive dose of herbicide that did it in. A year later she and her family moved
away. At their new place they immediately found funds to cut down a large tree that
was going to interfere with their satellite reception. Sigh.

[MikeM]

Not sure what you mean by And ??????????

I'm not talking to you. Is this your thread? No, but of course you always have to make it about you, don't you? Even when someone dies, it's "hey, look at me!"

Meanwhile, I'm waiting for Willi to make some connection between the MPSC's admonishment and his pet Red Run drainage district. Don't tell me; he wants extra special attention for his neighborhood from DTE. Get in line.

[sumas]

In Detroit there are more invasive trees along the power line right of way behind the
houses. I am particularly impressed with that small-leaved "elm" tree that stays
green through November, tacking on an extra growing month to keep its head start
over other trees. There are fewer occupied houses as well due to house rage and
all other causes.
I had a neighbor who contacted DTE continuously about when they could cut the
willow tree branches that were laced among the power lines. She always received the
answer that they would cut them when they cut all of the trees in the neighborhood.
Contractors would be seen cutting branches elsewhere in the neighborhood. She ended
up killing the willow tree herself somehow - it survived the girdling, must've been a
massive dose of herbicide that did it in. A year later she and her family moved
away. At their new place they immediately found funds to cut down a large tree that
was going to interfere with their satellite reception. Sigh.

Sigh indeed. Posted this on a different thread. trimmed my trees on the front easement with a neighbors help, city responsibility, I might add. Some city idiot comes around and says hope you're not putting that out for big trash too early. We were putting it in state mandated recycle bags. All I could say, was pick the bags up. Shocker they did 15 bags. Mostly that stuff doesn't get picked up. I am not going to do DTE work. They can fund all sorts of feel good concerts etc but can't seem to do the job at hand

[sumas]

I'm not talking to you. Is this your thread? No, but of course you always have to make it about you, don't you? Even when someone dies, it's "hey, look at me!"

Meanwhile, I'm waiting for Willi to make some connection between the MPSC's admonishment and his pet Red Run drainage district. Don't tell me; he wants extra special attention for his neighborhood from DTE. Get in line.

That is an interesting post. I looked for clarification. Seems more like it is your thread. Don't taunt what you don't know. And I sure don't want to know you.

[248lurker]

This must be our quarterly discussion on power outages. Here's the one from three months ago.

http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthr...e-in-the-Metro

[Willi]

I want hardcore cutting everywhere.
No special circumstances for anyone.

I personally lost power every month , for 12 months in a row one year. Various excuses for the 10 minutes to 10 hours of zero power. That's when I took a zero tolerance approach , writing down each instance, timing etc.

Living in Michigans 3rd most populated city with Heavy Manufacturing pulling serious KiloWattage should NOT involve repeated outages on a monthly basis. It has gotten better, but it involved serious public humiliation on social media in a relentless manner to get results.

Now the State Commission has taken notice, because my plight is but one of millions of others in SouthEast Michigan.

It is a service industry.

[mtburb]

This must be our quarterly discussion on power outages. Here's the one from three months ago.

http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthr...e-in-the-Metro

These quarterly discussions, though, don't count the more-frequent PLD outages. Besides, I believe the last time both PLD and DTE customers were without power in the city limits simultaneously was after a thunderstorm sometime in 2013 or 2012-a PLD outage had already, of course, knocked out power to most of downtown and the surrounding areas and then the storm went through and throttled many DTE customers on the northwest side into the dark as well.

[Willi]

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/mobile/...-tree-trimming

Jay Green has been diligently tracking DTE inadequacies and writing about them

HE posted in the DETROIT edition
of Crains Business soooooo
that's why I shared it for December

[sumas]

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/mobile/...-tree-trimming

Jay Green has been diligently tracking DTE inadequacies and writing about them

HE posted in the DETROIT edition
of Crains Business soooooo
that's why I shared it for December

Thank you for sharing.

[mikeg19]

People are gonna bitch about losing trees, then they're going to bitch about there power going out because DTE wasn't proactive and cut em down prior to. I can see where people might think the trimming efforts are excessive in some areas, but if it's within the power companies area of operation, there isn't oo much people can do about it.

[jackie5275]

It is a service industry.

Which unfortunately is monopolized. We'll get to you when we get to you.

[sumas]

Which unfortunately is monopolized. We'll get to you when we get to you.

Maybe someone can explain why DTE gets to be a monopoly. Lose power for days, told we used 87 percent more power?? Take care of that snafu. This month find out they didn't apply our payment. They are driving me nuts.

Yes I want them to be proactive and trim trees off the lines.

Here is a fun one, try going in person to question billing and they only allow one person to see a rep. They still can not answer legitimate questions. Anyone who knows us will confirm we function as a team, 40 yrs of togetherness, we can finish each others sentences. We are hardly postal but that is their rules.

Totally useless with total power. Pun intended!

[Willi]

People have alternatives

http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/mpsc/ele...sp/aeslist.htm


Keep in mind it is much more than just a tree limb falling on a line and causing
a short, breakage, etc. --- it involves switches, substation equipment, etc.
Often minor disturbances can be re-routed with no interruption in power;
if the equipment is functioning properly, updated, modern, etc.

In Warren; many of us are still waiting for our SmartMeters to be installed for the grid.
A lot of ignorant kooks caused a government fuss delaying implementation.
DTE has installed more than 900,000 smart meters for electric customers and modules
for gas customers in Oakland County and parts of Washtenaw County.
It is beginning installation in Monroe County.
DTE projects it eventually will install about 4 million of the advanced meters.

[Gistok]

People have alternatives

http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/mpsc/ele...sp/aeslist.htm

There's only 1 company on that list that provides residential services, the rest are all commercial providers.

And so you switch to another company... then what? You're still on the same power grid, using the same electricity... having the same outages.... just getting your bill from a different company....

[Willi]

Blame politicians for restructuring EDISON electric company and creating what is now DTE

http://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/lehman...edison_company