Consumers Energy Expects to Restore Nearly 50 Percent of Customers by Saturday Morning

JACKSON, Mich. Friday, February 24, 2023

Consumers Energy’s all-hands-on-deck restoration effort will continue through the night, and the energy provider expects to restore nearly half of all customers impacted by this week’s powerful ice storm by Saturday morning.

“Our 24/7 response to this ice storm will continue Friday night and through the weekend as more than 500 crews work to get the power back on for all of our customers,” said Norm Kapala, one of Consumers Energy’s officers in charge for the event. “We expect to hit the halfway mark tomorrow morning, and we will continue our around the clock effort until everyone impacted is restored.”

With favorable weather conditions on Friday, Consumers Energy crews and other lineworkers from Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Virginia have restored power to 106,000 customers after an ice storm caused more than 11,000 downed wires and knocked out power to 250,000 homes and businesses.

The energy provider projects that a majority of affected customers will have power back by Sunday. Restoration work will continue and be largely complete by the end of the day Monday.

Consumers Energy is also providing additional comfort to hard-hit areas with community breakfasts this weekend. Free meals will be served from 9 to 11 a.m. on Saturday at the Grand River Brewery at Manchester Market in Manchester and from 8 to 11 a.m. on Sunday at the Gene Davis and Sons Banquet Center in Jackson.

Customers can sign up to get outage alerts and restoration times sent to a phone, email or text message, Text ‘REG' to 232273 or visit www.ConsumersEnergy.com/alerts. People who don’t sign up for alerts can report and check on the status of outages at www.ConsumersEnergy.com/OutageCenter. Estimated restoration times can vary based on damage assessments and changing weather conditions.

Consumers Energy urges the public to keep important safety tips in mind:

• Watch for downed wires. People should always stay at least 25 feet away from a downed wire, keep children and pets away, and report the issue by calling 9-1-1 and Consumers Energy at 800-477-5050.
• Be alert to crews working along roads. Drivers should slow down or stop and wait for oncoming traffic to clear so they safely can go past workers on roadsides.
• Never use a generator in an attached garage, basement, enclosed patio or near any air intakes. Doing so could cause a generator to produce hazardous levels of carbon monoxide, an odorless, colorless and deadly gas. Read more guidance on safe generator use here.
• Consumers Energy will trim or remove trees interfering with electric restoration activities. Once safe to do so, clean-up of debris from tree trimming or removal during a storm emergency is the responsibility of individual property owners.
• In some cases, the mast that holds the electric service wires to a home or business may have been damaged or torn away. Crews will reconnect the wires to a home, but only a licensed electrician can repair or replace a mast or a cable.

Consumers Energy is Michigan’s largest energy provider, providing natural gas and/or electricity to 6.7 million of the state’s 10 million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties.

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Media Contacts: Josh Paciorek, 517-243-9036,

The next news release is scheduled for 6 a.m. Saturday, February 25.

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