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STATE OF MICHIGAN  
BEFORE THE MICHIGAN PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION  
3 In the matter, on the Commission's  
own motion, to establish a workgroup  
4 to review the service quality and  
reliability standards for electric  
Case No. U-20629  
Volume No. 1  
5 distribution systems and to recommend  
potential improvements to the standards.  
6 _________________________________________/  
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PUBLIC HEARING  
Proceedings held in the above-entitled matter  
before Sharon L. Feldman, J.D., Administrative Law Judge  
with MOAHR, via Microsoft Teams and at the Michigan  
Public Service Commission, 7109 West Saginaw Highway,  
Lake Michigan Room, Lansing, Michigan, on Thursday,  
December 9, 2021, at 9:07 a.m.  
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14 APPEARANCES:  
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BENJAMIN J. HOLWERDA, (Via Teams)  
Assistant Attorney General  
7109 West Saginaw, Floor 3  
Lansing, Michigan 48917  
On behalf of the Michigan Public Service  
Commission Staff  
- - -  
24 REPORTED BY: Lori Anne Penn, CSR-1315  
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Penn Reporting, LLC - lori.penn@yahoo.com  
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I N D E X  
2 COMMENTERS:  
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ROBERT NELSON - Citizens Utility Board of Michigan  
JOE MUSALLAM - DTE Electric  
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Lansing, Michigan  
Thursday, December 9, 2021  
At 9:07 a.m.  
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(Public Hearing commenced pursuant to due notice.)  
JUDGE FELDMAN: Good morning all, and  
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welcome. We are opening the record of a public hearing  
in Michigan Public Service Commission, Case No. U-20629,  
entitled: In the matter, on the Commission's own motion,  
to establish a workgroup to review the service quality  
and reliability standards for electric distribution  
systems and to recommend potential improvements to the  
standards.  
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This is the date and time designated by  
the Commission in its November 4, 2021, order for a  
public hearing to solicit comments on the proposed rule  
revisions. This public hearing is being held in person  
at the Commission's Lansing office and as a video  
teleconference hearing. The Commission's address was  
included in the notice of hearing. The information  
needed to participate remotely was also included in the  
notice of hearing and allows for participation by  
Microsoft Teams link or by phone. The Commission's  
publicly available docket for this case shows that the  
notice of this hearing was published in the following  
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newspapers on November 23, 2021: The Grand Rapids Press,  
The Mining Journal, and The Oakland Press.  
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For the record, my name is Sharon  
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Feldman, I'm an Administrative Law Judge with the  
Michigan Office of Hearings and Rules, and my function  
today is to make sure that everyone who wants to make an  
oral comment on the proposed rules has the opportunity to  
do so.  
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Additionally, I'd note that the  
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Commission's accepting written comments on the rules  
through January 6, 2022. Written comments must reach the  
Commission prior to 5:00 p.m. on that day. As specified  
in the notice of hearing, written comments can be sent by  
mail to the Commission's office addressed to the  
Executive Secretary, Case No. U-20629, Michigan Public  
Service Commission, P.O. Box 30221, Lansing, Michigan  
48909, or may be emailed to the Commission's Executive  
Secretary at mpscedockets@michigan.gov. Please reference  
Case No. U-20629 in your email. As a reminder, all  
information submitted to the Commission in this matter  
will become public information available on the  
Commission's website and subject to disclosure.  
I also want to note that Assistant  
Attorney General Benjamin Holwerda is attending today  
remotely. Mr. Holwerda, would you like to place your  
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appearance on the record, please.  
MR. HOLWERDA: Yes. Thank you, your  
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Honor. Ben Holwerda, Assistant Attorney General,  
appearing on behalf of Commission Staff. Thank you.  
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JUDGE FELDMAN: Commission Staff member  
Charyl Kirkland is also here today, she is present at  
this hearing, so anyone attending in person who has  
questions regarding these rules may check with her at the  
end of the comment period this morning.  
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We have a court reporter here, and the  
transcript of this hearing, including all comments, will  
be posted to the docket for this case. As I said before,  
that is available on the Commission's website. All  
written comments will also be posted on the website in  
that same docket.  
And as I indicated before we started, I'm  
going to start this morning by asking anyone present in  
person who wishes to make a comment to do so now.  
Mr. Nelson, I believe that you would like to make a  
comment this morning, and if you can step over to the  
podium. Remember that it's more difficult for the court  
reporter to transcribe your comments with all of us  
wearing masks.  
MR. NELSON: Yes, I realize that.  
JUDGE FELDMAN: Thank you. And if you  
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could just spell your name for her, too.  
MR. NELSON: Sure. Sure. I'm Robert  
Nelson, R-o-b-e-r-t N-e-l-s-o-n, I am the president of  
the Citizens Utility Board of Michigan, or known as CUB.  
And your Honor, it's a privilege to be here today. We  
will be filing our written comments on or before  
January 6, but we felt it was important to come here  
today because we have some significant remarks to make.  
You know, 17 years ago these standards  
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were amended, and I was on the Commission at that time,  
and we, as a Commission, recommended a number of  
amendments to these standards, one of which was to  
provide for the first time a customer accommodation for  
an outage, for a sustained interruption of power, and we  
were very proud of that, it was the first time that we  
had such an inducement in the rules, and it was a limited  
amount, $25 for each outage, but we felt as if it was a  
significant step, and I could foresee that it may take  
another 17 years to for us to come back to these  
standards, and so that's why it's important that we get  
our comments in today because we have some important  
changes that we'd like to recommend.  
First of all, I would like to commend the  
Commission for proposing some very good amendments to  
these standards. The standards have been significantly  
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improved from where they were when we first started this  
17 years ago. First, the Commission has eliminated the  
need for the customer to apply for a credit, the  
Commission has stricken the phrase that notifies the  
utility of the interruption from the standard and,  
therefore, the bill credits will be available to all  
eligible customers regardless of whether they apply or  
not.  
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Second, the Commission has increased the  
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bill credit for an outage to $35.00 plus $2.00 per hour  
for outages that exceed a fixed number, and index that  
amount going forward, which is something that we have  
represented at CUB for some time. Now, CUB still  
maintains that bill credits should be tied to, a variable  
credit tied to each hour of power interruption, and I'll  
come back to that in a second because I think that is the  
answer to our issue.  
We support the need for additional --  
COURT REPORTER: I'm sorry. We support  
the need for additional?  
MR. NELSON: -- information required by  
the rules in annual reports of the utilities. It is  
important to require a utility to document the steps it  
must take to bring its performance up to an appreciable  
level. But we -- and we also support the idea of a gray  
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skies category, gray skies condition category for  
purposes of reporting data; however, the gray skies  
condition is very problematic when applied to the  
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issuance of bill credits. As proposed in the rules, the  
gray sky condition threshold would actually make it  
harder for many customers to qualify for credits. Under  
the current rules, any grid condition where less than  
10 percent of the customers are out of power is  
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considered normal conditions, and any customer who loses  
power for more than 16 hours under those conditions  
qualifies for a credit, but the proposal and the unique  
standards is that a customer only qualifies for a credit  
if the power is out for 48 hours or more under gray skies  
conditions. This creates a new missing group of  
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customers who currently qualify for the credits but would  
not under the new standards; customers who lose power for  
more than 16 hours but less than 48 hours. So given the  
severity of the reliability problems in Michigan, as seen  
by the summer storms this year, this is not the time to  
make it harder for customers to qualify for credits. So  
we recommend using the gray sky condition category for  
purposes of the data reporting, but not as a threshold  
for bill credit qualification. I think it would be very  
simple for the Commission just to make it clear that gray  
skies does not constitute --  
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COURT REPORTER: Does not constitute?  
I'm sorry.  
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MR. NELSON: -- does not constitute a  
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threshold for bill credits. And so our previous proposal  
to tie the credit to each hour the power is out would  
answer that situation. And so you can start by saying  
that if a customer is out for two -- one hour, you get  
$2.00, and two hours, $4.00, all the way up to about $35  
for the 16 hours, and this way a customer who is out for  
15 hours under current standards would qualify for zero,  
and if he's out for 16 hours, you can qualify for $35.00,  
so that in itself is inequitable. One last point is  
that, at the very least, the Commission should ensure  
that a utility that does not meet the level of service  
quality set forth in these standards should not recover  
the cost of the bill credits issued pursuant to these  
rules.  
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So those are our proposals. We, again,  
will file written comments, but we appreciate the time  
accorded us today for making these comments. Thank you  
very much.  
JUDGE FELDMAN: Thank you, Mr. Nelson.  
Mr. Musallam, would you please come up to  
the podium.  
MR. MUSALLAM: Sure.  
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JUDGE FELDMAN: Once again, if you could  
spell your name for the court reporter.  
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MR. MUSALLAM: Sure.  
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JUDGE FELDMAN: -- and remember that it's  
difficult to transcribe comments when we're wearing  
masks, so if you could speak as slowly and distinctly as  
possible, it would be appreciated.  
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MR. MUSALLAM: I will do that. First of  
all, thank you, your Honor, appreciate it. My name is  
Joe Musallam, J-o-e, last name M-u-s-a-l-l-a-m, and I'm  
the Vice President of Distribution Operations and Storm  
for DTE Energy.  
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Well, I appreciate the opportunity to  
speak today on the proposed standards. We really look  
forward to working with the Staff and stakeholders to  
update the utility standards for --  
COURT REPORTER: I'm sorry. You're going  
to have to slow down.  
MR. MUSALLAM: I'm very fast, I know  
that.  
We look forward to working with the Staff  
and stakeholders to update the utility standards for  
electric service in Michigan, and to explore potential  
rule changes to ensure safe and reliable -- (audio  
interruption) --  
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COURT REPORTER: -- safe and reliable?  
MR. MUSALLAM: -- electric service. In  
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response to the proposed rule changes, DTE would like to  
provide comments on three issues. As discussed  
throughout the Commission's electric reliability and  
storm response technical conference this fall, the state  
of Michigan expects increased severity of weather events  
going forward. DTE has filed a Distribution Grid Plan  
outlining our 5-year plan and 15-year vision to enhance  
safety, reliability and resiliency, accessibility and  
affordability of the grid. DTE is fully committed to  
improving our customer experience and understands the  
frustration and inconvenience caused by losing power. In  
light of that understanding and our commitment to improve  
customer safety, reliability and affordability, DTE would  
like to provide the following comments on the proposed  
Service Quality and Reliability Standards.  
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So for us, Issue No. 1, around the  
performance standard for customer duration threshold  
during cat conditions, catastrophic conditions, in Rule  
22(b).  
DTE's customers had a difficult 2021  
storm season, historic in all manners of measurement. We  
are taking a comprehensive look and approach, searching  
across the industry for best practices, and engaging all  
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employees within our company to have an efficient and  
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safe process to restore customer outages during severe  
weather. DTE believes the trend in severe weather will  
require us to develop an industry-leading storm response  
process. Storms causing events with greater than 200,000  
customers out, defined as catastrophic conditions by MPSC  
definition and catastrophic 2 level by DTE definition,  
carry with them a variety of challenges. Protecting the  
public, ramping up internal resources, and bringing in  
external resources are all required in cat 2 level  
events. There is a two- to three- ramp-up time -- day  
ramp-up time to bring in sufficient resources from out of  
state to restore catastrophic, or greater than  
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10 percent, levels of outage events. Additionally, for  
large catastrophic storms that impact the broader region,  
securing foreign crews can be especially challenging as  
neighboring utilities will often not release their crews.  
During our last three cat storms, we were  
able to achieve a 90-percent restoration rate in  
approximately six days, which would be 144 hours on  
average. The time required to secure external crews, who  
often travel from different states, will make the  
proposed performance standard duration threshold of 48  
hours for catastrophic, or greater than 10 percent,  
conditions extremely challenging, if not impossible, for  
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DTE to achieve, especially until additional redundancy  
and modernization can be built into the distribution  
grid, a process that will require 10 plus years of  
sustained investment. Our recommendation would be to  
make the threshold 60 hours for the catastrophic event  
storms to ensure there is additional reasonable time  
allotted for external line crews to be secured and  
deployed while also driving DTE to further enhance the  
restoration timeliness.  
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Moving to Issue 2, DTE fully recognizes  
the customer impact of repetitive outages and the  
importance -- I'll take a step back.  
Issue 2 for us is performance standard  
for CEMI metric, C-E-M-I, in Rules 22(e) and Rule 22(f).  
DTE fully recognizes the customer impact  
of repetitive outages and the importance of the CEMI  
metric as a proxy for our customers' experience. With  
the implementation of the investments identified in the  
Distribution Grid Plan, DTE is confident our customers  
will see steady and significant improvements in service  
reliability in the coming years. We expect to achieve  
second quartile SAIDI and SAIFI by 2025 and first  
quartile by 2030. With that said, even under an  
aggressive investment scenario driving reliability  
improvements, we do not expect to achieve the 6 percent  
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target until 2028 and 5 percent until 2035.  
DTE is --  
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COURT REPORTER: I'm sorry. DTE is?  
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MR. MUSALLAM: DTE is concerned that the  
tightening of the frequency threshold does not allow  
sufficient time for the Company to execute the required  
improvements to the distribution grid outlined in the  
Distribution Grid Plan. DTE has been working with the  
Commission and stakeholders on an alternative proposal,  
that is, to utilize a performance-based ratemaking  
mechanism to drive the CEMI4 metric to a desired state.  
As utility standards are intended to define the baseline  
performance of electric service, we recommend that the  
Commission and stakeholders consider performance-based  
ratemaking as the appropriate venue to drive improvements  
to the CEMI4 metric.  
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Issue No. 3 is the two-hour incremental  
payments for customers experiencing long-duration outage  
events in Rule 44.  
Adding the hourly component to credit  
payments will add significant administrative challenges  
and costs for utilities to track, reconcile, and validate  
outage durations. It may introduce negative impacts to  
the customer satisfaction due to the complexity and  
credit calculation and customers' potential for  
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misunderstanding of the credit -- how the credit is being  
calculated and applied. For these reasons, DTE has  
proposed an alternative $35.00 per day incremental  
payment in lieu of the $2.00 per hour payment. We would  
like to recommend it again for the Commission and the  
stakeholders' consideration.  
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DTE understands the inconvenience our  
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customers endure during power outages, particularly the  
loss of power for multiple days caused by severe weather  
conditions. DTE has in the past voluntarily offered  
customer outage credits beyond utility standards; for  
example, during the summer's August storm and the  
March 8, 2017, wind storm, as well as setting up shelters  
for residents without power, delivering ice and water  
during summer storms and blankets hand warmers during  
winter storms. DTE is committed to continuing to provide  
accommodations during these unusual circumstances above  
and beyond the standards required in the future, while  
working diligently to prevent the underlying cause and  
restore customers as quickly and safety as possible.  
DTE would like to emphasize the purpose  
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of the utility standards is to define the baseline  
performance for electric service. We haven't seen other  
states -- no, I'm sorry. I apologize. No other state's  
utility standards have pursued CEMI performance  
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restoration duration and customer outage credits in the  
same level of detail as is being proposed in Michigan;  
this is according to the February 2020 benchmarking  
report by the Public Sector Consultants. With this in  
mind, we urge the Commission to reconsider the areas we  
have outlined here today.  
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With that, this concludes my comments on  
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behalf of DTE. Thank you for your time and  
consideration.  
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JUDGE FELDMAN: Thank you, Mr. Musallam.  
Would anybody else here in this room like  
to make a comment? (No response.)  
All right. Turning to everybody who has  
been participating remotely so patiently, I am not seeing  
any names typed in the chat of people participating by  
video that would like to make a comment this morning. If  
you can't type your name in the chat, you can turn your  
video on so I know that you'd like to make a comment.  
MR. DAYMON: Hey, Judge, this is IT. We  
turned the chat on, but everyone's video is disabled by  
default.  
JUDGE FELDMAN: O.K. So if possible, can  
you raise your hand if you would like to make a comment.  
There's a hand-raise function that's part of Teams, you  
see the little hand typically on the top of your screen.  
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All right. Let me just ask anybody participating by  
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video, if you would like to make a comment, go ahead and  
unmute your microphone and tell me your name. (No  
response.)  
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Anybody participating by phone only.  
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Anybody participating by phone, I believe it's *6 to  
unmute.  
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Mr. Robinson, I believe, has joined by  
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phone. Anybody else? There's a 220-2188 number, I  
believe *6 to unmute, please feel free if you'd like to  
make a comment. I'll wait a minute to see if anybody at  
all would like to make a comment remotely. Anybody at  
all, just unmute your microphone if you're calling by  
phone, that would be *6. (No response.)  
IT, can you see anybody with their hand  
raised?  
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MR. DAYMON: No, it doesn't seem anyone  
wants to comment, because they all have the option to  
unmute if they like. And no one is on the phone, that  
phone number is us.  
JUDGE FELDMAN: All right. Then let me  
thank everybody for coming today. I appreciate  
everybody's time and attention and interest. Thank you  
to our commenters. As I mentioned before, the Commission  
is taking written comments on this matter through  
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January 6, 2022, and the notice of hearing explains how  
you can make those written comments.  
And if there's nothing further from  
anybody, thank you all again. We are adjourned.  
(Public hearing adjourned at 9:30 a.m.)  
- - -  
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C E R T I F I C A T E  
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I, Lori Anne Penn (CSR-1315), do hereby  
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certify that I reported in stenotype the proceedings had  
in the above-entitled matter, that being Case No.  
U-20629, before Sharon L. Feldman, J.D., Administrative  
Law Judge with Michigan Office of Administrative Hearings  
and Rules, at the Michigan Public Service Commission,  
7109 West Saginaw Highway, Lansing, Michigan, on  
Thursday, December 9, 2021; and do further certify that  
the foregoing transcript, consisting of Volume 1, pages  
1-19, constitutes a true and correct transcript of my  
stenotype notes.  
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Lor
Penn Reporting, LLC  
lori.penn@yahoo.com  
December 14, 2021  
23 Dated: ______________________________  
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;