GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — You might see some Consumers Energy crews working to install buried power lines across West Michigan over the coming months.
Crews will be focusing on communities in Allegan, Allendale, Saugatuck and Hillsdale. The effort to bury the power lines will take about two months, Consumers Energy said.
“Consumers Energy is delivering on our promise to bury more power lines. This helps make the power grid stronger and, importantly, will help keep the lights on for customers, even during the most intense storms,” said Chris Laird, Consumers Energy’s vice president of electric operations. “This is only the start. We plan to take on more upgrades like this next year and in the years after that.”
This is part of the company's five-year Reliability Roadmap, which was introduced to show how Consumers Energy plans to restore power to customers within 24 hours of an outage, including after severe storms.
Part of the goal for 2024 is to install 10 miles of buried power lines, with a total of 1,000 miles being installed within five years.
“Burying power lines is an important part of our game plan, but it’s worth understanding it’s not the only approach,” Laird said. “We’re excited to bring these projects to more and more communities and, when burying lines isn’t the best option due to cost or other reasons, we want to use other tools in our toolbox to better serve the nearly 2 million homes and businesses that count on us.”
Consumers Energy said they are also working to keep power lines clear from trees and branches, update their technology and install more durable power poles.
You can find out more about the Reliability Roadmap here.
