Farmington Hills residents who lost power for days in early September could see bill credits under legislation Michigan Senate Democrats introduced Thursday, Sept. 10.

Senate Bills 1170-1175 would require utilities like DTE Energy to pay customers hourly credits for outages lasting more than 72 hours. Customers hit by four or more outages in a year would receive additional bill credits. The bills would also bar utilities from raising monthly rates to cover those payments.

Sen. Mary Cavanagh, D-Redford Twp., sponsored two of the six bills. Her district neighbors Farmington Hills. She pointed to the storms that knocked out power across metro Detroit the week of Sept. 3, leaving hundreds of thousands of DTE customers in the dark for days.

"Just last week, after severe weather tore through my district, many residents were without power for days," Cavanagh said in a Senate Democrats press release. She said the legislation demands reliability and transparency from utilities while protecting consumers from bearing the costs of grid failures.

The September storms were the second major outage event to hit the Farmington area this summer. At the July 13 Farmington Hills City Council meeting, Council Member Aldred reported receiving emails from frustrated residents after outages stretched from July 3 through July 9. Mayor Rich told the council that storm caused 38 downed wires, 14 heat-related emergencies and seven carbon monoxide alarms in the city. Rich said he planned to address the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) on July 16 about the outages, and that Farmington Mayor Joe LaRussa would also attend.

DTE said in a Sept. 7 statement, reported by WXYZ, that it had restored power to 99% of more than 450,000 customers affected by the September storms. The utility attributed remaining delays to crews finding additional damage. No DTE response to the new legislation appeared in public records as of publication.

Beyond credits, the bills would require utilities to report more detailed outage and grid data to the MPSC. Identical companion bills were introduced in the Michigan House by Rep. Donavan McKinney and other members.

The other Senate sponsors are Sen. Stephanie Chang, D-Detroit; Sen. Erika Geiss, D-Taylor; Sen. Sue Shink, D-Northfield Twp.; and Sen. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor.

The six bills have been referred to the Senate Committee on Energy and Environment. No hearing date has been scheduled.