Michigan regulators OK $100M rate hike for Consumers Energy

Posted: Dec 18, 2020 / 08:18 AM EST / Updated: Dec 18, 2020 / 08:18 AM EST

FILE – This Wednesday, April 3, 2019, file photo shows a box filled with dollar bills, in New York. A growing number of businesses and individuals worldwide have stopped using banknotes in fear that physical currency, handled by tens of thousands of people over their useful life, could be a vector for the spreading coronavirus.(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan regulators have approved a $100 million electric rate hike for Consumers Energy, authorizing the state’s second-largest utility to bill the average residential customer about $9 more per month starting in January.

The increase for residents is nearly 12% after factoring in other allowed adjustments.

The agency said Thursday the Jackson-based utility sought the higher rates to fund upgrades to its distribution system and to meet its clean-energy goals by retiring coal-fired plants. The hike is 39% of what Consumers requested.

The order also lets the utility spend more to trim trees to reduce power outages.