Michigan Residents May Qualify for a $42 Power Outage Credit

After recent severe storms, the Michigan Attorney General's Office is reminding residential and business customers to use the state's Power Outage Credit Feedback & Inquiry Form to report extended outages or ask about overdue credits. The office says outage credits are supposed to be automatic and can be based on outage length, outage frequency, or both. Plus, answering eight questions could turn into an extra $42 in your pocket.

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Losing power in Michigan is already annoying enough. Your fridge teeters on the edge of becoming a science project, your phone battery drops faster than your patience, and somehow the utility outage map always feels one update behind reality.

Michigan Power Outage Credits Explained

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The Michigan Public Service Commission says customers may qualify for a $42 outage credit (or more). You may get $42 if your power is out for 16 hours when fewer than 1% of your utility's customers are affected, 48 hours when more than 1% but fewer than 10% are affected, or 96 hours when 10% or more are affected.

Once your outage qualifies, an additional $42 can be added for each extra day the outage continues. Frequent outages count in Michigan, too. More than six interruptions in 12 months can qualify, as long as each lasts at least five minutes.

Why Michigan Residents Should Bother

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Because "automatic" and "actually on my bill" are not always roommates. The form helps the state track problems and ask utilities to investigate missing credits.

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Check your bill, contact your utility if the credit is missing, and fill out the Power Outage Credit Feedback & Inquiry form. It won't replace spoiled milk, but it might put a little money back where it belongs.