Michigan still pays outage credits by the day, not the hour

Michigan does not pay a power outage credit by the hour. What DTE and Consumers Energy customers actually receive is a flat daily amount: $42 per qualifying day for outages on or after October 1, 2025 under the MPSC’s September 2025 order, reported in September 2026 as $44 after an inflation adjustment. That credit only starts once an outage runs past a 16-, 48- or 96-hour threshold set by how much of the utility’s system went dark. The $5-to-$25 hourly schedule in Senate Bills 1170 through 1175, introduced September 10, 2026, is pending in the Senate Committee on Energy and Environment with no votes taken. Nobody can claim an hourly credit today.

Enter your outage length, the event’s scale and your interruption count; both payouts update beside the controls.

Current Daily Credit Versus the Proposed Hourly Schedule

Framework	Amount	Trigger	Status
Current MPSC rule	$42 per qualifying day	Outage longer than 16, 48 or 96 hours, or more than six interruptions in 12 months	In force for outages on or after October 1, 2025
Reported 2026 adjustment	$44 per qualifying day	Same triggers	Reported September 2026; verify against the current order or tariff
SB 1170–1175 proposal	$5 per hour from the first hour, rising to $25 per hour around 72 hours	Every outage hour	Introduced September 10, 2026; in committee

The amount that applies to a specific outage is date-sensitive. September 2026 reporting describes a $2 increase to $44, with another equal credit for each additional qualifying day. That figure rests on secondary reporting rather than the underlying September 2026 MPSC order, so check the outage date, the current tariff or the credit actually posted by the utility before assuming it controls your account.

The hourly figures are not money owed. Michigan Advance reports that SB 1170 through 1175 would start at $5 for the first hour and rise to $25 per hour for outages around or beyond 72 hours. Reports use different language for the upper boundary, such as “past,” “exceeding” or “72 hours or longer,” so the enacted text would have to settle what happens at exactly 72 hours. No source available establishes the intermediate tiers between $5 and $25 or a final calculation method. That is why the comparator above shows the proposal as a floor, not a total.

The 16-, 48- and 96-Hour Thresholds Depend on Outage Scale

Outage duration alone does not decide eligibility. The threshold that applies depends on the share of the utility’s customers affected by the same event.

Share of customers out	Duration threshold	What to verify
Under 1%	16 hours	How the utility classified the event
1% to 10%	48 hours	The affected percentage and boundary treatment
10% or more	96 hours	Utility records and the controlling rule

The MPSC’s published guidance describes the categories as 16 hours when fewer than 1% of the utility’s customers are affected, 48 hours when more than 1% but fewer than 10% are affected, and 96 hours when 10% or more are affected. Other official and reported summaries phrase the boundaries as 1% to 10%, 10% or more, or more than 10%. If an event landed on exactly 1% or 10%, ask the utility which category it recorded under the controlling rule rather than reading it off a simplified summary. The MPSC outage-credit guide lays out the agency’s duration and frequency framework.

You can log when service failed and returned at your address. You usually cannot know what percentage of the utility’s customer base was out, which is why the same 20-hour outage qualifies in a small event and does not in a storm that hit a tenth of the system.

Coverage also depends on who serves you. September 2026 reporting says municipal utilities and electric cooperatives are exempt from the MPSC credit requirement. Confirm whether your account is with an investor-owned utility, a municipal utility or a co-op before relying on any of these thresholds.

More Than Six Interruptions in 12 Months Is the Other Route

Frequent short interruptions have their own test. A customer may qualify after more than six interruptions within 12 months, provided each lasts at least five minutes. After the related credit is paid, the interruption count resets to zero, according to the MPSC guide.

The Senate package reportedly would lower this repeated-outage threshold. The new number is not established in the reporting available, so the comparator marks it as unknown.

Four Outages Run Through the Current Rule

These examples address the first eligibility question. They do not establish that a particular account must receive a credit.

A 20-hour localized outage. A 20-hour interruption may cross the 16-hour threshold if the utility classifies the event in the under-1% category. Duration alone is not enough; the utility-wide classification still decides.

A 60-hour outage with intermediate impact. If the utility records the event in the category covering roughly 1% to 10% of its customers, 60 hours exceeds the 48-hour threshold.

A 100-hour widespread outage. If the event belongs in the largest category and the applicable threshold is 96 hours, a 100-hour interruption may qualify. It earns one credit; the four hours past 96 do not add a second.

Seven shorter interruptions. Seven separate interruptions lasting at least five minutes within 12 months may satisfy the frequent-outage test even if none approaches 16 hours. The count resets after the credit is paid.

These numbers follow the MPSC duration and frequent-interruption framework cited above. Boundary treatment and final eligibility depend on the utility’s records and the controlling rule.

Once an extended outage qualifies, the framework provides another equal credit for each additional 24 hours the outage continues. The available guidance does not say how a partial additional day is rounded or ignored, so the comparator counts only full extra 24-hour blocks and does not prorate.

What SB 1170 Through 1175 Would Change

Sen. Stephanie Chang introduced SB 1170 on September 10, 2026. The official Michigan Legislature record shows referral to the Senate Committee on Energy and Environment, with no amendments or votes.

News reports describe SB 1170 as part of a six-bill package running through SB 1175 that would replace the threshold-based daily structure with hourly credits. The supported endpoints are $5 per hour beginning with the first hour and $25 per hour at or after roughly 72 hours, subject to the exact wording of any enacted bill.

The evidence does not support filling in the intermediate tiers, computing a guaranteed payment for a specific outage, assigning an effective date or assuming retroactive coverage for the September 3, 2026 storms that prompted the bills. Those details would come from enacted language and any resulting MPSC orders or utility tariffs.

The package also reportedly would lower the repeated-outage threshold and add limited food-loss provisions involving local governments and some renters whose utilities are billed through a landlord. A September 2026 ClickOnDetroit report said the Senate package was introduced while an identical House package from 2025 remained pending. Until something is enacted and implemented, determine eligibility under the existing daily, threshold-based framework.

Why Utility Pages Show $40, $42 and $44

The three amounts belong to different dates. $40 appears in earlier MPSC guidance and utility materials. $42 is the amount established by the primary MPSC announcement cited above, effective October 1, 2025. $44 is the later amount reported after a September 2026 inflation adjustment, and the underlying order or current tariff should be checked before treating it as controlling for a particular outage.

Use the date of the qualifying outage. If the figures conflict, ask the utility to identify the rule, tariff and amount it applied.

Where the Credit Appears on a DTE or Consumers Energy Bill

Report every outage, even if neighbors already have. If the utility sends a restoration notice while your power is still off, report the continuing outage immediately; a premature restoration record can shorten the duration the utility has on file.

Keep the outage-report confirmation number or a screenshot, the date and time service failed, the date and time it was restored, restoration estimates and completion notices, outage-map screenshots, a log of repeated interruptions lasting at least five minutes, relevant texts, emails and chat records, and every bill issued during the following 90 days.

DTE customers. DTE says it determines eligibility automatically, so customers ordinarily do not submit a separate reliability-credit request. An eligible adjustment may take one or two billing cycles, or up to 90 days after the outage, to appear. On a paper bill, check Summary of Charges on the first page; on an electronic bill, check Bill Summary. DTE’s outage claims page lists $42 for outages on or after October 1, 2025, another reason to confirm how the utility treats the outage date.

Consumers Energy customers. Consumers Energy also says qualifying credits are automatic, but automatic review does not mean every outage qualifies. The adjustment may appear as a line item in the center of the bill, as an outage-credit billing adjustment in the payment section, or both. If an expected credit is absent more than 90 days after restoration, call 800-477-5050. These instructions come from Consumers Energy’s outage-credit page.

For questions about the state framework, the MPSC guide directs customers to their utility or the commission at 1-800-292-9555. Contacting the commission does not itself establish eligibility.

The Credit Does Not Reimburse Spoiled Food or Damage

The outage credit is a standardized adjustment to an electric account, not compensation for losses.

Consumers Energy advises customers with spoiled food to ask whether their homeowners or renters insurance may cover it. DTE treats property-damage claims separately from automatic reliability credits; its claims information says customers may need to submit receipts, invoices and photographs, and DTE evaluates each claim individually. Submitting documentation does not establish utility responsibility or guarantee payment.

Photograph and keep receipts for spoiled food, damaged appliances, temporary lodging and other expenses in case they matter for an insurance claim or a separate utility damage claim. Do not add them to the credit amount or treat a met duration threshold as proof of liability.

The Senate package’s food-loss provisions are limited to local governments and some renters, and they exist only as proposed text. There is no statewide food-reimbursement benefit in force.

Planned Outages Follow the Same Credit Rules at Consumers Energy

Consumers Energy says its planned or scheduled outages follow the same credit rules as outages at any other time. A planned outage is not automatically disqualified under that utility’s stated policy, but it must still meet the duration or frequency test.

That is a Consumers Energy policy statement. Municipal utilities, co-ops and other providers may treat planned work differently, so check their rules directly.

What to Do After a Recent Outage

1. Report it to the utility and save the confirmation.
2. Record the start and restoration times at your address.
3. Preserve screenshots, confirmations and utility messages.
4. Identify your provider type and, if you can, the event’s utility-wide scale.
5. Watch the next two billing cycles for the credit line.
6. Call the utility if the credit is still absent 90 days after restoration.

Michigan’s framework remains daily and threshold-based. The $5-to-$25 hourly schedule is pending legislation and should not be counted as money currently owed.