We saw some questions on Facebook from viewers wondering about how Consumers Energy bills customers during outages.
Roger Morgenstern from Consumers Energy helped clear things up for us, so we could verify just how outages affect your bill.
Some proactive customers may have seen an estimated usage online, which is from their smart meter. This is solely an estimate provided by the meter based on usual patterns, but no customer will be charged for anything outside of actual usage.
But if your power was out for 16 hours or more, you are eligible for an outage credit up to $25 when fewer than 10 percent of Consumers' customers are without power. If more than 10 percent of the utility's customers are without power, your service must be interrupted for more than 120 hours to be eligible for a credit.
Customers can apply for that credit here. Morgenstern said they will approve each credit on a case by case basis and provide reasoning for applications that are denied. Here are the rules that the company follows when giving outage credits.
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