UPDATE: No heat interruptions yet, but Consumers asks customers to keep thermostats at 65

JACKSON, MI – Officials turned up the urgency late Wednesday night in their call for residents to turn down the heat.

Emergency messages were sent to cellphones across the Lower Peninsula and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer took to Facebook to urge residents to turn down their thermostats. The messages came amid fears of a natural gas shortage caused by extraordinarily high demand coupled with a fire at a Consumers Energy facility.

Heat interruptions could result if residents and businesses don’t act to reduce natural gas usage, Consumers Energy CEO Patti Poppe said in an interview late Wednesday, Jan. 30.

Record cold temperatures and a fire at the Ray Natural Gas Compressor Station in Macomb County on Wednesday morning led the utility to make the increasingly urgent appeal to lower thermostat settings.

Residents are asked to turn their heat down to 65 degrees until noon on Friday, Feb. 1.

"What we're trying to avoid is having to interrupt critical facilities and residential customers," Poppe said. "We've never had to do that before."

There was a record-breaking demand for natural gas Wednesday morning, Poppe said, with reported temperatures around 4 degrees below zero. Temperatures are expected to hit 14 degrees below zero Thursday morning, Poppe said.

IMPORTANT MESSAGE IMPORTANT ALERT: Due to extremely high demand for natural gas with record-low temperatures, and an incident at a facility, consumers energy has asked everyone who is able to please turn down their thermostats to 65° or less until Friday at noon Posted by Gretchen Whitmer on Wednesday, January 30, 2019

“You can play a role in helping people across the state survive these extreme temperatures,” Whitmer said in a video message. "Please do. We’re calling on every Michigander to do your part and help us weather this storm together.”

Consumers has reached out to more than a dozen of its largest commercial customers, asking for a voluntary reduction in usage for the next two days. Ford, General Motors, Fiat-Chrysler and Gerdau are among companies “interrupting their production schedules” through Friday to help conserve natural gas, Poppe said.

Consumers executives have been in contact with Whitmer and state officials throughout the evening, prompting the emergency alert.

“That’s how serious it is,” Poppe said. “I don’t want to under-call the significance of the request.”

The following alert was sent to Michiganders across the Lower Peninsula on Wednesday, Jan. 30.

The utility is accessing natural gas stored underground in Northville and St. Clair Shores as a replacement.

Consumers has enough natural gas, Poppe said. The issue is getting it out of the ground fast enough to distribute.

"We can't get it out of the ground without the equipment that was involved with the fire," Poppe said about the Macomb County station.

The facility is one of seven compressor stations in Michigan for the utility. When operating, it can handle half of the peak usage level in the state on its own, Poppe said.

The fire occurred at one of three plants at the station, but all three were closed during the fire. One of the two plants not involved is in the process of restarting, Poppe said, and the other should be back up by Friday.

“It’s too cold right now for people to not have heat in their home,” Poppe said. “That’s what makes this so urgent. If this was June, it wouldn’t be a problem. But it’s the coldest days on record and we need to make sure that everyone can have enough heat, some heat.”

DTE Energy earlier in the day also urged customers to do “just a little bit” to reduce energy usage.

“While DTE’s plants are running well, our system is connected to energy grids in other states and Canada that are experiencing issues due to the extreme weather," said Christy Wicke, DTE’s director of generation optimization. "If every DTE Energy customer does just a little bit, energy demand can be substantially reduced – and that will help maintain reliability of the entire grid during the sub-zero temperatures.”

“If every DTE Energy customer does just a little bit, energy demand can be substantially reduced – and that will help maintain reliability of the entire grid during the sub-zero temperatures.”https://t.co/xjLwAOovrM — DTE Energy (@DTE_Energy) January 30, 2019