How Consumers Energy customers helped avert a Michigan gas crisis

That late-night text message plea to turn down your thermostat worked, reducing peak demand for gas and preventing possible shut-offs, Consumers Energy President and CEO Patti Poppe said Thursday.

"We had a 10% reduction on the system and that was a game-changer for us overnight," Poppe said a news conference Thursday. "No residential gas customers lost service as a result of this."

No shutoffs are expected but Poppe reiterated the call for people to keep their thermostats dialed down through Friday as the company works to repair damage to a compression station in Macomb County.

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Poppe said that the company had plenty of gas available to supply its roughly 1.8 million customers during the record cold snap, but distributing it became a problem after a fire at the Ray Township facility. Consumers Energy reduced the gas supply to industrial customers throughout the day Wednesday, but the load was still not dropping because of the extreme temperatures, she said.

On a typical winter day in Michigan, the company pumps about 2.5 billion cubic feet of gas, Poppe said. Yesterday's cold temperature pushed demand to 3.3 billion cubic feet and the company projected it would rise to 3.7 billion cubic feet today.

That's when they contacted the governor's office about issuing the emergency alert, which sounded on cellphones and mobile devices across the state last night.

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The plea went about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday to everyone in the Lower Peninsula with a mobile device, even those not serviced by Consumers Energy, Poppe said. Because the various providers connect their systems, anyone who dialed down also helped the situation.

Poppe thanked everyone and apologized for the inconvenience.

"On behalf of the entire Consumers Energy, we're sorry that you are in this situation," she said.

Energy use typically peaks around 7 a.m. and today's peak was about 3.3 billion cubic feet, Poppe said.

Some customers have reported low gas pressure, causing furnaces to not fire properly, but Garrick Rochow, Consumers Energy senior vice president of operations, said those were unrelated to the problems with the Ray facility.

"There are what I would call onsie-twoies, or one customer or two customers in a certain location where there might be a limitation of natural gas flow that can impact a furnace," he said. "Those are really rare across the system and we quickly respond with a service worker to address that situation."

Poppe didn't offer a timeline on when the Ray Township facility would be fully functional again. There are three plants there and only one of them is currently operating. Crews are working to determine the cause of the fire and rectify it before restarting the other two plants, she said.

So how close was the utility to shutting off people's gas?

Spokesman Brian Wheeler said without the request to reduce usage, the company likely would have faced that decision. But it wasn't imminent when the request went out.

"The appeal provided us with the cushion that we needed," he said.

Wheeler said he didn't know of any time the utility was forced to shut off service because of supply problems but said the company has previously requested voluntary reductions because of an emergency situation.

Contact John Wisely: 313-222-6825 or jwisely@freepress.com. On Twitter @jwisely

Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @challreporter