Attorney General Nessel Intervenes in Consumers Energy’s $436 Million Rate Hike Request

LANSING – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has filed a notice of intervention (PDF) in Consumers Energy Company’s latest electric rate case (U-21870), the full application for which was filed today (PDF) before the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC). This follows Consumers’ filed announcement of their intention to hike electric rates (PDF) made in a March filing before the MPSC a mere seven days after their latest electric rate hike was approved. Consumers Energy is seeking an annual rate hike of approximately $436 million (PDF) which, if approved, would take effect in May 2026. It marks the largest electric rate hike the company has proposed during Attorney General Nessel’s time in office and is likely the largest in decades.  

This rate hike request comes just two months after the MPSC approved the for-profit company’s $154 million rate hike in March, which took effect upon their customers’ electricity bills on April 4, 2025. In addition to the latest proposed annual rate hike, Consumers Energy is also aiming to recover from their bill-paying customers an additional $24 million in deferred distribution costs through a separate 12-month surcharge. The rate hike alone would increase overall rates by 9.2% and hike household rates by 13.3%. 

“Before Consumers Energy, or anyone else for that matter, can even begin to measure any affordability or reliability improvements from their last rate hike, the company is back in business asking to bill their customers an additional $400 million annually. In a troubling continuation of the patterns we see before the MPSC from both Consumers Energy and DTE, this is at least among the largest rate hikes Consumers has ever requested, if not the largest itself,” Nessel said. “When my office alerted the public to Consumers’ announcement of this intended rate hike two months ago, the utility tried to tell their ratepayers we were wrong on the facts or misleading the people of this state. Instead, they’ve done exactly what we knew they would, exactly as their filing indicated in March. My office will thoroughly scrutinize this request and will not be deterred in our fight to protect Michigan ratepayers from corporate greed and endless, increasing rate hikes.” 

Attorney General Nessel has intervened in this rate case as she does in all major utility rate cases before the MPSC. The Department of Attorney General’s staff, along with its experts, will carefully scrutinize the filing to ensure customers do not pay any cost that does not have commensurate quantifiable benefits. Recent rate hike requests from DTE and Consumers Energy have included such inappropriate costs as private jet travel for executive staff and other unsupported expenditures that could not be demonstrated to benefit their customers. Additional rate hike cases open before the Commission include DTE’s latest electric rate hike request (U-21860) and Consumers Energy’s natural gas rate hike request (U-21806).  

The Attorney General has saved Michigan consumers more than $3.7 billion by intervening in utility cases before the MPSC. Consumers Energy sells electricity to approximately 1.9 million customers throughout Michigan and natural gas to 1.8 million customers across the state.