When the Lights Go Out: Michigan’s Tale of Two Power Grids

Vote Solar’s data reveals a troubling pattern, Michigan’s BIPOC communities face significantly longer outages and more frequent disconnections than predominantly white neighborhoods, even when comparing areas with similar income levels and housing values.

Imagine your electricity cutting out repeatedly throughout the year, forcing you to throw away $200 worth of groceries multiple times while your budget is already stretched thin. Imagine missing workdays because you can’t access the internet, losing vital income your family depends on. Imagine your child falling behind in school because power outages prevent them from completing assignments. Imagine life-saving medical equipment failing during deeply critical moments.

This isn’t just hypothetical.

For many Michigan families living in predominantly BIPOC communities, these scenarios play out regularly — resulting from nearly six additional hours of power outages each year, on average, compared to predominantly white neighborhoods with similar income levels and housing values. When these outages strike during extreme weather or medical emergencies, they don’t simply cause inconvenience, they create real crises.

The story behind this injustice begins with questions that have circulated among environmental justice advocates for years: Are some communities experiencing worse electrical service than others? If so, could these disparities correlate with racist systematic patterns?

To find answers, we dove into the data, examining service reliability metrics across census tracts while controlling variables like income, housing values, and population density. What was drawn was a clear and concerning picture of Michigan’s two-tiered electrical service.

The Numbers Behind the Narrative

At Vote Solar, we champion energy equity: the fair distribution of both the benefits and burdens of our energy system. When examining service reliability across different communities, our analysis of DTE Energy’s 2023 data reveals notable differences:

Longer Outages & More Disconnections

• In communities with identical population density and median home price, predominantly BIPOC census areas experienced dramatically worse electric service reliability than predominantly white neighborhoods.
  • All-BIPOC communities experienced 960 minutes of outages throughout 2023 (measured in SAIDI, all weather conditions)
  • Communities with 0% BIPOC residents experienced only 608.6 minutes of outages under the same conditions
  • The difference: 351.4 minutes, or nearly 6 additional hours of blackouts for BIPOC communities in a single year 
• Our analysis also found troubling disparities in residential disconnection rates:
  • When comparing communities with the same median income, all-BIPOC communities experienced 208.2 disconnections on average
  • Communities with 0% BIPOC residents experienced only 87.7 disconnections
  • That’s 120 more disconnections in BIPOC communities – a rate nearly 2.4 times higher than in predominantly white areas

Breaking the Pattern: A Look at Michigan & Surrounding States

Is this pattern inevitable? Our efforts took us beyond Michigan’s borders to find out.

In Chicago, ComEd’s service territory showed a smaller but still noticeable gap: all-BIPOC communities experienced about 25 more minutes (0.4 hours) of outages compared to predominantly white areas with similar characteristics.

But the most revealing discovery came from Ameren’s territory, where our analysis found virtually no difference in outage time between BIPOC and white communities, just 0.1 minutes.

This comparison reveals a profound difference: the disparity we see in Michigan isn’t inevitable. It doesn’t show to be the unchangeable result of infrastructure age or geography. This utility demonstrated that equitable service delivery is achievable.

This raises the question: If Ameren can deliver consistent reliability across demographics, why can’t DTE Energy?

Writing a New Chapter: Pathways to Energy Equity

Michigan’s story of two grids doesn’t have to continue. Our data points to several promising paths for change:

1. Accountability: Utilities must be held accountable for delivering equitable service reliability across all communities they serve. The contrast with other regional utilities like Ameren shows that more equitable outcomes are achievable.
2. Investment Priority: Infrastructure improvements and maintenance must prioritize historically underserved communities.
3. Resilience Solutions: Local solar and storage solutions can provide backup power during outages while creating local economic benefits.
4. Just Transition Planning: As Michigan moves toward a clean energy future, ensuring reliability equity must be central to planning and not an afterthought.

With the right policies, investments, and accountability measures, Michigan carve a new path toward a just and equitable future.

Recent Victory: Change Is Happening

We’re already seeing meaningful progress toward energy equity in Michigan. In a landmark decision, Michigan Commissioners have ordered Consumers Energy to incorporate environmental justice considerations into reliability planning. The order specifically requires regression analysis in future rate cases and grid plans to include residential disconnections on top of reliability metrics, directly addressing the two key disparities we’ve identified in our research.

This victory represents a fundamental shift in how both the utility and Commission approach reliability in environmental justice communities. The decision demonstrates how data-driven advocacy can lead to concrete policy changes that benefit historically underserved communities. It creates a precedent that can be applied to other utilities across Michigan.

Moving Forward Together

Our data analysis reveals a story of both challenges and opportunities. The disparities in reliability and disconnection rates between communities represent real differences in quality of life, financial security, and health outcomes for Michigan families.

The recent Consumers Energy decision shows that change is possible and already underway. But there is still work to be done to make sure all Michigan utilities adopt similar practices.

At Vote Solar, we’re committed to working alongside partners to advance solar solutions that benefit all communities. We’re engaging with regulators, utilities and policymakers to highlight these findings and advocate for concrete steps toward a more equitable energy future.

Energy equity requires acknowledging where disparities exist, understanding their real-world impacts, and implementing targeted solutions to address them. As Michigan continues its clean energy transition, we have an opportunity to build a system that works better for everyone, providing reliable and clean power to all communities regardless of demographic makeup.