We are committed to ensuring transparency and clear communication during and after the catastrophic ice storm that caused widespread damage to Northern Michigan, including 100% of PIE&G’s service territory. We have heard many questions from the membership and developed this page to answer some commonly asked questions.
Yes. Due to the extreme cost of the 2025 ice storm and the unprecedented damage, the cooperative has no choice but to increase revenue to cover these unplanned expenses.
To ensure our not-for-profit cooperative’s financial stability, at the member regulation meeting on Tuesday, June 24, 2025, an increase was approved. That increase is $20/month for electric meters.
The $20/month for electric meters is charged once per location. If you have a home with an electric meter and a pole barn next door with another electric meter, you will only be charged once. If you have a home in Alpena County and a home in Cheboygan County (two sites), you will be charged at each location/site.
We currently do not have all the invoices from the storm processed, so we can only provide forecasts. Also, we are still in debris clean-up and post-storm repair mode, and still incurring expenses that will be invoiced in the future. However, the cost is substantial and unlike any other storm. The cost is well over $100 million dollars.
In the last twenty years, most major storms cost between $300,000 and $500,000, with the most expensive storm costing $1,300,000. The 2025 ice storm, with expenses exceeding $100,000,000, is unprecedented, very expensive, and extreme.
The $20/month is projected to be needed to directly pay for the ice storm. We do not have the final cost of the ice storm, but we know this ice storm will have direct costs over $100 million for PIE&G.
The projected revenue of an extra $20/month per electric meter per location will generate approximately $8 million dollars for our not-for-profit cooperative.
The simple answer is interest cost. We do not have final numbers, but we know the ice storm will exceed well over $100 million. For example, $100 million of emergency loans at 6% interest is $6 million per year, and $150 million of emergency loans at 6% interest is $9 million per year.
Yes! However, we must work through the process, and that takes time. We are grateful for the support as we work to secure disaster relief funding.
We cannot speculate the duration of this ice storm charge. As a not-for-profit cooperative, we only need to cover our operating expenses, and any additional revenue will be returned to the membership through our capital credit rotation process.
As a cooperative, we also need capital investments to maintain our critical infrastructure. That capital comes from loans and the members. Capital credit refunding and rotation is the process where we track any additional revenues and capital investment and allocate them back to every member on an annual basis. We use this additional revenue to build, maintain, and invest in our infrastructure for years to come. When it is fiscally responsible to do so, the cooperative will return the funds collected from those members.
No. The rates for natural gas have not been adjusted at this time.
No. We have been tracking and forecasting costs throughout the restoration period to ensure the cooperative’s financial stability. The increase was approved on June 24, 2025.
Yes. Members were notified of this meeting in our June 2025 Michigan Country Lines Magazine, which was mailed to each member on June 10, 2025. The magazine was also available and posted to our website on May 28, 2025.
No. While we are not done with the ice storm process and have not accounted for all invoices, we forecast that this additional revenue will cover our interest expenses.
While debris cleanup is part of the projected $100+ million in costs and is an important part of caring for our community, it is not a significant portion of the expenses. Most of our costs are related to rebuilding our electric infrastructure in April.
No. We are actively working with state and federal agencies to secure disaster relief funding and greatly appreciate their support for our community and membership. However, PIE&G has not received any funding.
As a not-for-profit, member-owned cooperative, PIE&G does not generate profit. The charge is being used solely to pay interest on the $100+ million loan we took to restore and rebuild critical infrastructure. If disaster relief funds are awarded or a surplus occurs, those funds will be returned to members through capital credits.
No. The extra charge is directly related to the costs incurred during and after the catastrophic ice storm. However, the new headquarters building was critical to efficiently and safely restoring power. We dispatched hundreds of crews daily from this facility, held training briefings from our facility, and ran 100% of our emergency operations, dispatch, warehouse receiving operations, materials storage, meals, all of which would have been nearly impossible with the layout and space at the prior facility. If this event occurred while we were at our prior facility, we would have had the added complexity of finding a second location to provide these logistics. The new HQ building and property provided a centralized space to navigate the ice storm recovery emergency.
