UPDATE: Customers can turn their heat back up after midnight

JACKSON, MI – It seemed like an absurd request, but Michiganders responded, and may have prevented heat shutoffs for Consumers Energy customers.

Despite extreme temperatures overnight, natural gas usage dropped 10 percent after the Jackson-based utility issued a late-night plea and the state sent emergency text messages asking customers across Michigan to turn their thermostats down to 65 degrees, Consumers executives said.

The reduction was enough to avoid the threat of heat interruptions, executives said in a press conference Thursday, Jan. 31.

Still, customers are asked to keep natural gas usage down until 10 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 1.

"We may never know that you took the action that we requested, because we monitor at a system level," President and CEO Patti Poppe said. "But we will forever be grateful that you did."

Poppe called the usage reduction a “game changer.”

Fire comes out of the top of two silo-looking structures at the compressor station at Consumers Energy in Armada Township, Mich. Consumers Energy has called on customers to voluntarily reduce their natural gas usage following a fire at a suburban Detroit gas compressor station amid bitterly cold weather. The Jackson-based utility says no one was injured in the fire Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019, at its Ray Natural Gas Compressor Station in Macomb County. The cause of the fire was under investigation. (Todd McInturf/Detroit News via AP) (Todd McInturf)

The combination of record-cold temperatures and a fire at Consumers' largest storage and delivery facility caused the shortage.

All Consumers buildings were turned down to 58 degrees and all state-owned facilities in the Lower Peninsula lowered thermostats by 5 degrees. Besides individuals turning down their heat, 79 companies across the state worked with Consumers to reduce their usage.

"As part of our arrangements and our contracts, we requested that they curtail their load and forgo their production schedules," Poppe said. "And they did."

The fire was at the Macomb County Ray Compressor Station, which holds 64 percent of Consumers' natural gas. All three plants at the station were shut down for the fire, but one is back up and running and the other will be back on soon, officials said.

While Consumers Energy doesn’t cover the entire state, Poppe said it’s important for all Michiganders to reduce natural gas usage, because the system is interconnected.

DTE Energy also asked customers Wednesday to reduce energy usage.

Poppe said Thursday morning she was "cautiously optimistic" about the utility's ability to avoid heat interruptions. The company is sorry and disappointed in what's happened, she said.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Consumers has made “significant investments” to the facility in recent years, so Poppe said she’s not attributing the fire to aging infrastructure.

"I understand that people are angry about this. I would be too. We plan for these extreme conditions," Poppe said. "The unplanned fire at our major facility, we were not prepared for that."

Demand for natural gas from Consumers broke records Wednesday and Thursday. On a typical winter day, 2.5 billion cubic feet of gas move across the state, Poppe said. The previous record was 3.0 billion cubic feet, until 3.3 billion cubic feet of gas was used Wednesday.

Consumers forecasted 3.7 million cubic feet of gas needed for Thursday, with temperatures dropping to more than 10 degrees below zero in many locations.

“In our 130 years, we’ve never experienced this kind of demand or these kinds of temperatures,” Poppe said.