DTE Electric Customers Will See A Bill Increase of 4%

Is there any bill that WON'T increase this year? *crickets*

Michigan regulators approved an $184 million annual rate hike yesterday, which will go into effect on February 7th. The good news? It's less than the self-implemented amount that DTE put into effect last August, so customers will be getting refunds from the last six months.

What will the extra money be used for? Commission Chairwoman Sally Talberg said that it will be used to upgrade its distribution infrastructure, and that the reason for all the power outages is lack of maintenance.

Personal note: we've lived in three different states, and we absolutely LOVE Michigan. But, from previous experience, we can say this: we pay a LOT more for utilities here, and have a LOT more unexplained power outages. Sad face.