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LANSING — Today, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel reaffirmed her commitment to protecting ratepayers, pledging once again to intervene in all major rate cases before the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC). The announcement from the Attorney General comes as Consumers Energy entered a “Filing Announcement” on Friday, formally and publicly announcing its intent to seek yet another electric rate hike “on or after June 2, 2026.” Under the current law, this is the first day Consumers Energy is eligible to file its next rate hike request.
Consumers Energy’s announcement, submitted to the MPSC on April 3, was issued a mere seven days after the MPSC approved a $276.6 million electric rate hike, which will become effective on May 1, 2026. Since 2020, the MPSC has approved nearly $800 million in annual revenue increases for Consumers Energy. The last approved rate hike also authorizes Consumers Energy to earn a 9.9% return on equity for all new capital expenditure projects, including those related to new data center construction.
While it remains unknown how many additional millions of dollars Consumers Energy will seek to bill its customers in this upcoming rate hike request, in its previous case, the utility sought a rate hike of $436 million and an additional surcharge of $24.3 million, which would have increased household rates by 13%. A summary of the new rate hike request is expected to be filed before the formal application, which the utility indicates will be filed in June.
“The rate hike just approved by the MPSC hasn’t even taken effect yet, and Consumers Energy is already gearing up to reach back into the pockets of Michigan families,” said Attorney General Nessel. “Ratepayers don’t have a choice in who they buy their energy from, yet our utility companies still choose to make these relentless and unsustainable rate hike demands year after year. Announcing plans to file what we expect to be a new multi-hundred-million-dollar request just seven days after securing a nearly $280 million hike proves how truly broken this system has become. Ratepayers are trapped in a loop where the demands for more from these massive utilities never end, even as energy prices become unaffordable for working families. My office will continue to scrutinize every penny of this upcoming filing, but intervention alone is no longer enough. It is past time for legislators on both sides of the aisle to come together and fix this broken system for Michiganders.”
Recent rate hike requests from DTE and Consumers Energy have included such inappropriate costs as private jet travel for executive staff, millions in executive incentive compensation tied to maximizing shareholding returns, and other unsupported expenditures that could not be demonstrated to be reasonable or prudent. Rate hike cases currently open before the MPSC include Consumers Energy’s natural gas rate hike request (U-21981), DTE’s natural gas rate hike request (U-21973), SEMCO Energy Gas Company’s gas rate hike request (U-22002), and Upper Peninsula Power Company’s electric rate hike request (U-22032). DTE has also submitted a filing announcement, announcing its intent to file another electric rate hike in April — five days after their last request was approved.
Consumers Energy sells electricity to approximately 1.9 million customers throughout Michigan and natural gas to 1.8 million customers across the state.
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