FAQ

Date: July 2021

Consumers Energy launched an ambitious Clean Energy Plan, which will eliminate coal and achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. Consumers Energy’s Clean Energy Plan is focused on increasing flexibility to the grid and the utility executed multiple key initiatives in 2020.

Consumers Energy developed and delivered a program in the spring of 2020 to give away Google Nest thermostats to Michigan households during the COVID-19 pandemic to help them save energy and money. Electric customers who received smart thermostats were also pre-enrolled in the Smart Thermostat Program, which shifts energy usage to off-peak hours — while also keeping households comfortable – on a few days each year. Consumers Energy placed more than 50,000 Google Nest thermostats in homes and enrolled 91.6% of eligible customers in the Smart Thermostat Program. Launched in only six weeks, Consumers Energy went above and beyond to help their customers during a pandemic lower their energy bills in a no-cost manner while also furthering its goals of a more flexible grid.

The program also served as an important starting point for its winter demand response program focused on natural gas customers -- both residential and businesses -- which launched in the fall of 2020.

Speakers:
Mike Smith, Awards Co-Chair, National Grid
Shannon Morrow, Consumers Energy
Emilie Tullis, Uplight
Justin Cofield, Google Nest