The Michigan Attorney General’s Office is reminding Consumers Energy and DTE customers that they may be eligible for a credit on their bill if they were without power for an extended amount of time.

Spokeswoman Kelly Rossman-McKinney says last weekend’s storms left hundreds of thousands of utility customers without power and, in this case, utilities are required to offer credit to those customers. Customers that were without power for more than 16 hours as a result of recent electric outages may be eligible for a $25 credit.

Consumers are eligible for a credit under “normal conditions” if the utility fails to restore service within 16 hours after an outage resulting from conditions other than catastrophic conditions. Catastrophic conditions are defined as an event that results in an official state of emergency or an event that results in interruption of 10 percent or more of the utility’s customers and the utility fails to restore power within 120 hours or five days.

Credits are also available for repetitive interruptions if a customer experiences more than seven interruptions in a 12-month period. Customers must notify their electric utility of all service outages and should record the date and time of each outage; when the company was notified of the outage and how it was notified; and when the service was restored.

Rossman-McKinney says applying for the credit is pretty simple and information on how to do so can be found at the utilities’ websites. (DK)