Count on Us: Consumers Energy Continues Delivering Electricity More Reliably to Michigan Homes, Businesses

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Jan 25, 2016, 06:00 ET

JACKSON, Mich., Jan. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Consumers Energy crews put 2015 into the company's record books, setting new standards for performance in returning electricity to homes and businesses that lost power.

"Our employees are proud of their effort to keep communities connected, working hard and working smart when power goes out," said Mary Palkovich, Consumers Energy's vice president of energy delivery. "We know the vital role that electricity plays in people's lives, and we take seriously our work to make sure homes and businesses have power when they need it."

Outside of major storms, the average Consumers Energy customer that experienced an outage last year received power again in three hours. That is an improvement of 40 minutes over the typical outage that a home or business experienced five years ago.

Consumers Energy also restored electricity to homes and businesses in less than eight hours over 93 percent of the time outside of major storms. That's the best performance in company history.

The improvements reflect a commitment to speed up outage restoration times. Consumers Energy has also spent nearly $450 million in the last five years to improve its electric system, and will continue to do more to replace older equipment and clear trees away from power lines.

"We are always looking to improve the steps we take to restore power," Palkovich said. "We will continue doing all we can to ensure that our system can withstand bad weather and make sure we can deliver electricity reliably."

Consumers Energy provides electricity to over 1.8 million homes and business throughout the Lower Peninsula. The public can track the status of outages, and learn about preparing for bad weather, online at www.ConsumersEnergy.com/outagecenter.

People also can take advantage of outage alerts from Consumers Energy to learn when their power is out and the estimated restoration time. Residential customers can receive outage updates by email, phone call or text message after visiting www.ConsumersEnergy.com/alerts to set their preferences. Business customers can sign up for text alerts by texting REG to 232273 (CECARE) and providing their account number when prompted.

Consumers Energy, Michigan's largest utility, is the principal subsidiary of CMS Energy (NYSE: CMS), providing natural gas and electricity to 6.6 million of the state's 10 million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties.

For more information about Consumers Energy, go to www.ConsumersEnergy.com.

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SOURCE Consumers Energy