WEST MICHIGAN — A handful of West Michigan regions will soon have a more reliable electric grid, following an initiative from Consumers Energy.
The utility company announced Monday, Sept. 30, work has started or will start soon to bury power lines in four communities, including two in Allegan County and one in Ottawa County.
That includes Allegan, Allendale and Saugatuck. The other community is Hillsdale. The projects will continue over the next two months, per a release.
Placing lines underground protects from some of the most common causes of outages — high winds, lightning, heavy snow, ice and falling trees.
“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,” Chris Laird, vice president of electric operations, wrote in a release. “This is only the start. We plan to take on more upgrades like this next year and in the years after that.”
More: Consumers will bury power lines in six counties
In total, Consumers is spending $3.7 million on a pilot program to bury power lines in 2024. State regulators signed off on a plan for burying the lines in March. The program is funded by an increase in the company’s electric rate charged to customers.
The plan was first announced in July 2023. At the time, Consumers said the pilot would focus on areas that have frequent, lengthy outages and places with dense trees that are often responsible for those outages.
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Within the next five years, Consumers plans to bury 1,000 miles of power lines as part of a Reliability Roadmap, the company’s long-term plan to restore power to all customers within 24 hours of an outage.
“Burying power lines is an important part of our game plan, but it’s worth understanding it’s not the only approach,” Laird wrote. “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 is the state’s largest energy provider. To date, about 15% of its power lines run underground, according to the company’s website.
— Contact reporter Mitchell Boatman at mboatman@hollandsentinel.com.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Consumers is burying power lines in Allegan, Allendale, Saugatuck
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