A fire at Consumers Energy's facility in Armada Township, Michigan, north of Detroit, has Detroit-area automakers closing some plants. (Photo credit: Fox2Detroit)
The alert went out by smartphone to nearly 2 million natural gas customers across Michigan’s Lower Peninsula: turn back your thermostats or risk the possibility of having natural gas supplies cut off.
While some utilities have raised concerns about gas supplies in previous cold waves, the warning from Michigan-based Consumers Energy Co. was compounded by a fire at a gas compression facility near Detroit that created a potentially worst-case scenario, shortages even as demand for heat across the frozen state was reaching record level in temperatures dropping into the double-digits below zero.
And individual consumers aren’t the only ones being impacted. Ford Motor Co. says it has reduced operations at four plants as of Thursday morning, while General Motors has temporarily halted or reduced operations at 11 of its own factories, as well as its Technical Center in the Detroit suburb of Warren. About 20,000 workers at that sprawling complex have been asked to work at home through Friday.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles also suspended a shift at two of its assembly plants in Southeast Michigan and may extend those closures.
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The warning was broadcast by smartphone alert at 10:31 PM, almost 12 hours to the minute after a fire broke out at the utility’s natural gas compression facility in Armada Township, almost 50 miles north of the Motor City.
Ford has reduced the heat at its Van Dyke Assembly Plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan, due to a fire at a Consumers Energy facility.
The blaze at the facility, which is used to boost gas line pressures, took almost five hours to extinguish. Only one of three pump operations at the Consumers plant is back online and the utility says it isn’t clear how long it will take to repair the others.
A spokesperson for the utility said she was “cautiously optimistic” that the plant closings and voluntary moves by individual customers are helping Consumers handle the situation. The utility has asked that thermostats be lowered to 65 degrees until the Armada Twp. Operation is fully functional again.
In the meantime, the utility is turning to “peaking fields” in several Detroit suburbs to help expand its supply of gas.
But the situation could get dire, Consumers Energy CEO Patti Poppe warned in a video posted to the utility’s Facebook page on Wednesday night.
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“I need to ask you to take action tonight,” Poppe said. “It’s going to be colder tomorrow than it was today (and) without any action, that means there will be more demand for natural gas than there was today.”
Actually, temperatures in many parts of Michigan may be slightly warmer than they were on Wednesday, but not by much, with Thursday morning seeing double-digit negative numbers in the Detroit area and other parts of the state. Things are expected to improve slightly on Friday – but temperatures will still remain just above zero for most of the day, according to the National Weather Service. The real break comes on Saturday as temperatures in parts of lower Michigan will jump up into the low 40-degree range.
General Motors is asking many of the 20,000 employees at its Tech Center in Warren, Michigan, to work from home until Friday.
Until then, however, demand for natural gas and other sources of heat could remain at or near record levels, experts are warning.
With 1.8 million customers, Consumers Energy covers much of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. But not everyone is affected.
“We have reduced heating levels at Livonia Transmission and Van Dyke, stopped heat treatment processes at Sterling Axle and have shut down the paint process at Michigan Assembly,” a statement from Ford noted. “All other plants are operating normally.”
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That’s because they rely on Michigan’s other big utility DTE Energy. So do some GM operations, including its big Renaissance Center headquarters along the Detroit River.