MI Utility Asks For $436M Energy Hike; Nessel Intervenes

MICHIGAN — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is intervening after Consumers Energy latest electric rate request.

The utility is asking to raise rates by $436 million, which Nessel says is one of the largest hike requests.

If approved, it would affect roughly 1.8 million Michiganders, who mostly live outside southeastern Michigan and get their electricity from Consumers Energy. The utility said the main reason for the rate hike is to improve its reliability, including "investments in electric generation, safety and compliance, and enhanced technology."

The new rates would take effect in May 2026.

Consumers' request comes two months after the Michigan Public Service Commission approved a $154 million rate hike in March, which customers started seeing on their electricity bills in early April.

Nessel also says Consumers is trying to secure another $24 million through a separate surcharge over 12 months. The combined requests would raise overall household rates for those customers by 13.3 percent, according to Nessel.

"Before Consumers Energy, or anyone else for that matter, can even begin to measure any affordability or reliability improvements from their last rate hike, the company is back in business asking to bill their customers an additional $400 million annually," Nessel said. "In a troubling continuation of the patterns we see before the MPSC from both Consumers Energy and DTE, this is at least among the largest rate hikes Consumers has ever requested, if not the largest itself."

DTE, which primarily serves southeastern Michigan, has also asked for a rate hike. The utility is asking to raise rates by $574 million, which would be an 11 percent increase on electricity costs.