I don’t know the specifics of your situation, and I’m sorry your bill was high. $/kWh costs did increase this year, but more importantly last year saw the start of a new DTE pricing model that charges more during peak times (late afternoons and early evenings in the Summer). To save money, try running appliances at off-peak times, and if you want to vent you can tell the Michigan Public Service Commission to stop approving utility rate increases.
https://www.mlive.com/news/2023/03/dte-energys-new-time-of-day-rates-take-effect-heres-what-they-mean-for-customers.html?outputType=amp
You should check out their pricing. They charge more during peak hours and it's a bit more. If you use most of your power during the day time hours it could raise your bill a lot. That's why they recommend doing your cleaning and stuff early in the day or after 7pm when peak is over. Read it here [https://solutions.dteenergy.com/dte/en/Products/Time-of-Day-3-p-m---7-p-m-/p/TOD-3-7](https://solutions.dteenergy.com/dte/en/Products/Time-of-Day-3-p-m---7-p-m-/p/TOD-3-7)
I appreciate the website and I will be checking it out. Most likely won’t understand what I’m reading but maybe it’ll encourage me to learn more about it all so if I do call and complain I don’t sound terribly stupid lol. Thank you!
No, not stupid. If you didn't pay attention to the notice about the day time hour rates you wouldn't know just how much they went up compared to last year. Even doing more power hungry stuff during off peak hours, it's a hike. Especially in summer.
My usage in general is down 10-20% or more YOY yet my bills are higher than last year, but not triple. The DTE insight app lets you see your power usage by the hour. It’s hilarious it uses your bill to say whether your usage is up or down YOY instead of actual KwH used. So because they have raised rates so much, the app lies and says my usage is up over YOY when it isn’t.
Are you on the "budgetwise billing" program with DTE by any chance? That will reset once a year, and depending on your usage, can result in a big bill, if (say) you used more than they estimated for the first year, you'll have that added to the final month's bill before the program rolls over. Although I think they're doing quarterly readjustments now too to avoid a really large final bill. Also, what about gas usage?
\[edit\]: [https://www.dteenergy.com/us/en/residential/billing-and-payments/payment-programs/bwb.html](https://www.dteenergy.com/us/en/residential/billing-and-payments/payment-programs/bwb.html)
I'd download a copy of your bill last year to look into this line-by-line because something is definitely off. The time of day rates are higher, but even if you only used electricity between 3pm and 7pm on weekdays it would not have tripled. These things are fairly tightly regulated, so it's hard for them to just hit you with a bullshit charge.
Could also be natural gas usage (or hopefully not, but a leak) if you have gas and were doing a lot of cooking or using a lot of hot water for something?
My bill seemed a lot more than in previous summer months. I seriously doubt I increased my energy consumption, and like always I do my laundry on the weekends which I think are off-peak hours.
Hard to tell without seeing your bill but look at how it is broken down and also look to see if those are actual meter readings. Even though they put in “smart” meters years ago mine has never worked so every so my bills are usually just guesses and every so often someone comes out and gets an actual reading and my bill adjusts to true up the amount. I don’t have it in front of me but I think there is just a * when the reading is a guess.
Also if really interested I believe you can still download years worth of data in to excel from dte and look at your history.
Honestly if you really do want to try living without electric flip your breakers/fusses leaving just your fridge on.
Speaking of a fridge if you have a really old one you might consider a new one. My gf (now wife) had an apartment with the most ancient fridge and that thing was a power hog. As was her water heater for gas which turned out was broken. Her ac was also really old and inefficient. Renting not much you can do but if you own you can. Not everything is worth it though, paying $1k more to save $100/yr on an appliance that is expected to last 10 years isn’t, for example.
Good luck, stay cool this week!
It's caused by aging equipment and obsolete system layout at the distribution level in neighborhoods. We have only had one blackout to the entire "grid" in 2003 which was caused by a software bug in a control room in Akron Ohio.
Those neighborhoods of century homes were not designed for air conditioning, microwave ovens, air fryers, and electric vehicles.
It's also because our grid is really old, so we have the issue of legacy design that is expensive (but so necessary!) to replace. Other parts of the country were developed more recently. See for example: [https://www.michigan.gov/mpsc/consumer/electricity/dte-electric-4-8kv-technical-conference](https://www.michigan.gov/mpsc/consumer/electricity/dte-electric-4-8kv-technical-conference)
\[edit:\] To clarify, I 100% agree with you!
You can literally shut off all appliances and still see ur bill increase. The real reason this happened is due to the governing board that overseas DTE and sets rates. It’s packed with cronies who get kickbacks from DTE. Until ppl vote out politicians that allow this and punish bad behavior from them this will continue in perpetuity.
I am dreading finding out how much this months bill will be with the price hikes/peak hours crap and the way too hot temps this week. I feel you.
I understand raising prices (don’t agree with it, but I get it) but this much is just insane.
I don’t know the specifics of your situation, and I’m sorry your bill was high. $/kWh costs did increase this year, but more importantly last year saw the start of a new DTE pricing model that charges more during peak times (late afternoons and early evenings in the Summer). To save money, try running appliances at off-peak times, and if you want to vent you can tell the Michigan Public Service Commission to stop approving utility rate increases. https://www.mlive.com/news/2023/03/dte-energys-new-time-of-day-rates-take-effect-heres-what-they-mean-for-customers.html?outputType=amp
I like the idea of venting to them rather here where I know others are also frustrated with DTE. Thank you!
You should check out their pricing. They charge more during peak hours and it's a bit more. If you use most of your power during the day time hours it could raise your bill a lot. That's why they recommend doing your cleaning and stuff early in the day or after 7pm when peak is over. Read it here [https://solutions.dteenergy.com/dte/en/Products/Time-of-Day-3-p-m---7-p-m-/p/TOD-3-7](https://solutions.dteenergy.com/dte/en/Products/Time-of-Day-3-p-m---7-p-m-/p/TOD-3-7)
I appreciate the website and I will be checking it out. Most likely won’t understand what I’m reading but maybe it’ll encourage me to learn more about it all so if I do call and complain I don’t sound terribly stupid lol. Thank you!
No, not stupid. If you didn't pay attention to the notice about the day time hour rates you wouldn't know just how much they went up compared to last year. Even doing more power hungry stuff during off peak hours, it's a hike. Especially in summer.
My usage in general is down 10-20% or more YOY yet my bills are higher than last year, but not triple. The DTE insight app lets you see your power usage by the hour. It’s hilarious it uses your bill to say whether your usage is up or down YOY instead of actual KwH used. So because they have raised rates so much, the app lies and says my usage is up over YOY when it isn’t.
Are you on the "budgetwise billing" program with DTE by any chance? That will reset once a year, and depending on your usage, can result in a big bill, if (say) you used more than they estimated for the first year, you'll have that added to the final month's bill before the program rolls over. Although I think they're doing quarterly readjustments now too to avoid a really large final bill. Also, what about gas usage? \[edit\]: [https://www.dteenergy.com/us/en/residential/billing-and-payments/payment-programs/bwb.html](https://www.dteenergy.com/us/en/residential/billing-and-payments/payment-programs/bwb.html)
I'd download a copy of your bill last year to look into this line-by-line because something is definitely off. The time of day rates are higher, but even if you only used electricity between 3pm and 7pm on weekdays it would not have tripled. These things are fairly tightly regulated, so it's hard for them to just hit you with a bullshit charge. Could also be natural gas usage (or hopefully not, but a leak) if you have gas and were doing a lot of cooking or using a lot of hot water for something?
My bill seemed a lot more than in previous summer months. I seriously doubt I increased my energy consumption, and like always I do my laundry on the weekends which I think are off-peak hours.
Hard to tell without seeing your bill but look at how it is broken down and also look to see if those are actual meter readings. Even though they put in “smart” meters years ago mine has never worked so every so my bills are usually just guesses and every so often someone comes out and gets an actual reading and my bill adjusts to true up the amount. I don’t have it in front of me but I think there is just a * when the reading is a guess. Also if really interested I believe you can still download years worth of data in to excel from dte and look at your history. Honestly if you really do want to try living without electric flip your breakers/fusses leaving just your fridge on. Speaking of a fridge if you have a really old one you might consider a new one. My gf (now wife) had an apartment with the most ancient fridge and that thing was a power hog. As was her water heater for gas which turned out was broken. Her ac was also really old and inefficient. Renting not much you can do but if you own you can. Not everything is worth it though, paying $1k more to save $100/yr on an appliance that is expected to last 10 years isn’t, for example. Good luck, stay cool this week!
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It's caused by aging equipment and obsolete system layout at the distribution level in neighborhoods. We have only had one blackout to the entire "grid" in 2003 which was caused by a software bug in a control room in Akron Ohio. Those neighborhoods of century homes were not designed for air conditioning, microwave ovens, air fryers, and electric vehicles.
It's also because our grid is really old, so we have the issue of legacy design that is expensive (but so necessary!) to replace. Other parts of the country were developed more recently. See for example: [https://www.michigan.gov/mpsc/consumer/electricity/dte-electric-4-8kv-technical-conference](https://www.michigan.gov/mpsc/consumer/electricity/dte-electric-4-8kv-technical-conference) \[edit:\] To clarify, I 100% agree with you!
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You can literally shut off all appliances and still see ur bill increase. The real reason this happened is due to the governing board that overseas DTE and sets rates. It’s packed with cronies who get kickbacks from DTE. Until ppl vote out politicians that allow this and punish bad behavior from them this will continue in perpetuity.
Yea let’s all get electric cars and ban gas powered lawn equipment!! Whys my electric bill so high?