Ann Arbor residents plan ballot initiative to dump DTE and shift city toward public power

BY KYLE DAVIDSON, MICHIGAN ADVANCE

MICHIGAN—A group of Ann Arbor residents are taking the first steps toward removing DTE Energy as their electrical provider and creating a public electric utility board.

On Tuesday, Ann Arbor for Public Power announced that its members are drafting a ballot proposal for the November 2026 election, asking voters to create a new board of public electric utility, before taking over infrastructure from DTE Energy at a later date.

DTE Energy is one of the largest energy utilities in the state and has faced frequent criticism for high rates and unreliable electricity. According to the Citizens Utility Board of Michigan, an energy utility watchdog, DTE customers experienced an average of 1,542 minutes without power in 2023, ranking among the worst utilities in the nation for outages.

In its announcement, the group argued that shifting energy to a public power utility would be highly likely to provide more reliable, more renewable, and less costly power to Ann Arbor residents.

“The first question for voters is: do you want this? The plan is to create the board of the public utility in the 2026 election, before taking over poles and wires from DTE. Creating the board will cost the people of Ann Arbor zero dollars, and it will put the process of dumping DTE in motion,” Ann Arbor For Public Power’s Executive Director Brian Geiringer said in a statement.

After language for the effort is approved, the group will need to gather 5,000 signatures to have the matter placed on the ballot.

In an email, DTE Spokesperson Ryan Lowry said the city’s transition from DTE to a municipal utility would be a costly one, citing research showing the effort could saddle Ann Arbor with $2 billion in debt and raise rates for residents and businesses by 30 to 40%.

“DTE Energy is already committed to delivering a reliable, affordable and clean energy future for Ann Arbor.  We are investing $250 million in infrastructure improvements in the city over the next five years, dramatically improving reliability,” Lowry said. “We’re also dedicated to providing 100% of Ann Arbor’s electricity from clean energy, while continuing our focus on customer affordability, keeping energy bills below the national average.”

However, Ann Arbor for Public Power previously pushed back on the cost analysis commissioned by DTE arguing the report’s findings are wildly inflated and that the report fails to provide evidence for why rates would increase.

With the ballot effort underway, members of the group are anticipating stronger pushback from DTE.

“A dedicated group of Ann Arborites has been working hard to expand A2P2’s capacity in the last few months. We feel it’s incredibly important that members of the public have a real voice in this process; that’s the only way to win. We are ready for this moment and call on everyone who is interested to join the fight,” Geiringer said.

READ MORE: Nessel seeks to slash DTE half-billion-dollar rate hike request by 75%

This coverage was republished from Michigan Advance pursuant to a Creative Commons license.