Overview
- The company filed the request on June 3, 2026, asking for about $456 million a year that includes a 12‑month $25 million surcharge and $52 million spread over three years for storm restoration and related charges.
- If regulators approve the package as filed, residential electric rates would rise about 9.8 percent for Consumers Energy customers.
- The filing says the funds would support specific reliability work such as burying 50 miles of distribution lines, improving circuits with frequent outages and upgrading monitoring technology to shorten and reduce outages.
- Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced an immediate intervention hours after the filing, calling the company’s cost estimates inflated and warning the proposal worsens an affordability crisis after regulators approved roughly $800 million in Consumers rate increases since 2020.
- The request opens a roughly 10‑month Michigan Public Service Commission review with public comment and comes while several other utilities have active rate cases, a dynamic that could affect future bills and push further scrutiny or legislation on utility costs.