Jackson, Mich. Monday, October 19, 2026
Mid-Michigan customers are getting their power back faster after catastrophic storms, even when storms cause widespread outages. During the March 2026 statewide storm, more than 98% of affected customers in the Jackson, Lansing and Owosso territories had power restored within 24 hours, and all were restored within 48 hours, the region's strongest results among eight catastrophic storms analyzed from 2023 through July 2026.
The improvement was also seen statewide. The March 2026 storm caused 350,827 customers to lose power, nearly as many as the 418,017 affected during the February-March 2023 storms. Yet more than 80% of customers were restored within 24 hours, compared with more than 54% in 2023.
"We know our customers expect reliable power and faster restoration when storms occur. These results demonstrate that our investments are making a difference, and we'll continue strengthening the grid through our Reliability Roadmap to deliver even better reliability for the communities we serve," said Greg Salisbury, senior vice president of electric distribution for Consumers Energy.
The specific storm-by-storm results broken down below highlight even more notable restoration gains since 2023, supported by Consumers Energy's more proactive tree trimming, installation of stronger poles and equipment, expanded use of technology, advanced weather forecasting, and strategic pre-staging of crews and resources.
February-March 2023: Mid-Michigan had 99,039 customers experience outages due to winter storms, with nearly 51% of customers restored within 24 hours and over 68% within 48 hours.
August 2024: Mid-Michigan had 30,883 customers experience outages, with nearly 80% restored within 24 hours and nearly 96% within 48 hours - 29% higher at 24 hours and 27% points higher at 48 hours than in February-March 2023.
March 2026: Mid-Michigan had 17,289 customers lose power, with over 98% of customers restored within 24 hours and 100% within 48 hours - the strongest 48-hour Mid-Michigan result and the strongest 24-hour result among storms with more than 10,000 interruptions in the eight-storm analysis.
Statewide results also demonstrate stronger restoration performance:
February-March 2023: The storm caused 418,017 customers to experience outages with over 54% restored within 24 hours and over 73% within 48 hours.
June 2024: Of 195,591 customers who lost power statewide, three-quarters were restored within 24 hours and 96% within 48 hours.
March 2026: Despite 350,827 customers experiencing outages statewide, Consumers Energy restored over 80% within 24 hours and over 89% within 48 hours - the strongest 24-hour statewide result among the eight storms analyzed.
"At the end of the day, keeping the lights on is job #1 for us," Salisbury added. "We'll continue to look for ways to utilize all the resources at our disposal to affirm that commitment."
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Media Contact: Matt Johnson, 517-888-1539 or matt.f.johnson@cmsenergy.com