Technological improvements and advances, meticulous inspections and a dedicated workforce led to a banner year for our reliability efforts in 2024.
“In 2024, we had a great year bringing our Electric Reliability Roadmap to life for customers who count on us to bring them reliable service every single day,” said Keith Kurdziel, Director of High Voltage Reliability and Support. “Now in 2025, our goal is to provide sustainable improvement that build on the successes in 2024 by reducing outages and decreasing the length of outages.”
We have a $1 billion investment that we’re executing every day to strengthen the electric grid.
Substations: The Unsung Heroes
At the first stop on our Reliability Roadmap tour, we visit the “unsung heroes” of the grid: our substations. These unassuming structures help power communities across the state.
In 2024, we performed more than 7,200 inspections at our nearly 1,100 substations around Michigan.
Our substation infrared inspection program, designed to identify and prevent problems before they occur, helped more than 54,000 customers avoid power outages in 2024.
A Birds Eye View
The next stop on our tour is by ground and air to inspect over 7,100 miles of High Voltage Distribution (HVD) lines with our helicopter and ground inspection programs last year. That team’s work helped more than 187,000 customers avoid power outages.
“The infrared program for our substations and visual inspections via helicopter and ground patrols of our HVD lines helped us with our reliability efforts in 2024 and both will be pillars of how we ensure reliability in 2025,” Kurdziel said. “Our reliability team will never rest on past performance. We strive to give our customers the world-class service that they expect.”
ATRs: The Traffic Lights
No tour would be complete without smart technology. Our automatic transfer reclosers (ATRs), a technology that works to automatically restore power from another source on the grid without manual intervention, have paid dividends and will continue to do so in our quest for safe and reliable service for all of our family, friends and neighbors.
The ATRs work like traffic lights, helping limit the frequency and length of power outages.
In 2024, we built 100 new ATRs to help limit the frequency and length of power outages. 
Last year, ATRs prevented over 77,000 customers from losing power in 2024. And we expect another stellar performance this year.
Improving Response Times
We will also continue to use line sensors, which can provide snapshots of the failures of our electric power lines. They pinpoint problems ranging from broken regulators to burnt cross arms. They will be another key component in improving our reliability and speeding response times to outage locations. With their help, crews can work more efficiently by identifying problems faster, leading to less frequent and shorter power outages.
Down Under
And our undergrounding work concludes our tour of the Reliability Roadmap.
In 2024, we buried 10 miles of overhead lines to prevent outages due to severe weather and vegetation. We plan to bury some 35 miles of lines in 2025.
Underground lines currently make up about 15 percent of our electric system. Most are in subdivisions and areas with high population density. Our goal is to bury over 800 miles of line in the next five years.
“There isn’t one thing that will improve our reliability overnight,” Kurdziel said. “It’s maintaining our strong inspection practices, adopting new technology, and improving on the successful technology at our disposal. It’s a daily mission that we take very seriously to keep the lights on for our customers across the Mitten.”
