DTE Investigates Cause of Equipment Failure

An equipment failure Wednesday night caused power outages in Berkley and Royal Oak and DTE is investigating the cause today, a spokesman said.

The initial outage occurred at approximately 10:30 p.m., spokesman Alejandro Bodipo-Memba said Thursday, and most customers were back online early this morning after a crew was dispatched to fix the problem.

However, DTE's outage map showed that as of 10:30 a.m., 652 customers were without power in Berkley, as were 80 in Royal Oak.

Bodipo-Memba said another crew was on the scene working to address the issue Thursday morning.

He added that out of DTE's 2.1 million customers in southeast Michigan, fewer than 1,000 were without power, "which is very typical."

"We don't have any concerns with regard to the system," Bodipo-Memba said. "As it relates to the (Woodward) Dream Cruise, all systems are a go. Everything's functioning as designed. We don't anticipate any problems."

Bodipo-Memba noted that inclement weather is expected to move through the area later Thursday and said DTE will assess the situation and respond accordingly should outages occur.

The National Weather Service is forecasting a high of 85 degrees with an 80 percent chance of precipitation Thursday; thunderstorms are expected during the afternoon, into the evening and overnight in the Berkley area and a hazardous weather outlook has been declared.

"These storms may become severe during the afternoon and evening," according to the forecasting agency. "The biggest threat from these storms will be damaging wind gusts to 60 mph and hail to one inch in diameter.

"In addition, very heavy rainfall may accompany these storms which could lead to localized flooding," the NWS said. "... The thunderstorms will be triggered by a strong cold front sweeping across lower Michigan."