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Message: General Motors has been requested by Consumers Energy of Michigan to suspend operations at its Michigan facilities to allow the utility to manage supply issues brought on by the extreme temperatures and equipment issues. Impacted facilities include Orion Assembly, Pontiac Stamping, Flint Assembly, Flint Stamping, Flint Engine, Flint Tool & Die, Lansing Delta Township Assembly, Lansing Grand River Assembly, Lansing Regional Stamping, Lansing Grand River Stamping and Warren Transmission.
Not just manufacturing , the entire Tech Center is shut down as well, that is a 12,000 person campus.
Yep i know i lived by the Tech Center it’s at 12 mile and Van Dyke I’ve been inside of it they have huge concrete curved walls that open up. And the GM Proveing ground is also shut down in Milford. Looks like all of GM is shutdown except their HQ. Looks like Ford and Chrysler are doing the same thing at their Michigan plants.
I believe I read there was some type of equipment fire impacting the delivery of natural gas. People are being asked to keep thermostats at 65. Even coming from the upper Midwest what I'm seeing on the news and hearing from friends is unimaginable.
I had no idea auto manufacturers were being effected as well.
Yes, it's hard to believe that this is due just to the cold temperatures. Because this is unheard of only in recent years.
I can't speak to Michigan in historical detail, but I do know that in Minnesota in the 60s this was standard stuff. In Coon Rapids we had 30 below on the thermometer (not wind chill) routinely and even 40 below on occasion. And when it got that cold in Minnesota....Iowa, Northern Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan weren't very much warmer.
Back in those days, only a fortunate few started their cars in the morning without an engine heater of some kind.
I believe I read there was some type of equipment fire impacting the delivery of natural gas. People are being asked to keep thermostats at 65. Even coming from the upper Midwest what I'm seeing on the news and hearing from friends is unimaginable.
I had no idea auto manufacturers were being effected as well.
There was an explosion at consumers energy our natural gas utilitie, all the big3 use a a hell of a lot natural gas to keep the plants furnaces going and for the ovens to bake the paint on. You have no idea how much natural gas and electricity these huge plants use the Ford Rouge plant were the F150 is made is 6,952,484 sq. ft. That’s allot of space to heat.
Michigan has two suppliers of natural gas. DTE and Consumers Power. Consumers had a huge fire that shut down their compressor station which provides 60% of their gas. hey are tapping reserves to keep people form freezing, but the reserves will likely run out before the Polar Vortex moves on.
The windchill is int h -30 to -40 degree range and it is not going to warm up much until Saturday evening. If GM and the others did not reduce their demand, people might die.
I do not understand the request to turn down thermostats. Why does it apply to DTE customers? DTE is not short of gas and as of now, they are not providing any gas to Consumer's customers (that is being negotiated, but it seems unlikely they will be able to move fast enough for that to make any difference). Further I do not understand what difference turning a thermostat down in these conditions will make. I have out zone three thermostat set at 68. Most of our zone 4 area is 58 degrees. That means the boiler runes non-stop trying to heat that area. If I turn the thermostat down to 65, the area will still be 58 degrees and the boiler will still run non-stop.
If your heating system was actually able to heat your house to 70 it might make sense to turn it down, but pretty much no one is in that situation. No one's houses are at 70 degrees (or even 68 for that matter.) Unless everyone turns their thermostats down to a temperature the system can hold the house at, it is not going to make any difference.
So we turned zone 3 down to 55, because we do not need that area heated during the day. But they are telling people to turn down to 65, what good is that going to do?
Michigan has two suppliers of natural gas. DTE and Consumers Power. Consumers had a huge fire that shut down their compressor station which provides 60% of their gas. hey are tapping reserves to keep people form freezing, but the reserves will likely run out before the Polar Vortex moves on.
The windchill is int h -30 to -40 degree range and it is not going to warm up much until Saturday evening. If GM and the others did not reduce their demand, people might die.
I do not understand the request to turn down thermostats. Why does it apply to DTE customers? DTE is not short of gas and as of now, they are not providing any gas to Consumer's customers (that is being negotiated, but it seems unlikely they will be able to move fast enough for that to make any difference). Further I do not understand what difference turning a thermostat down in these conditions will make. I have out zone three thermostat set at 68. Most of our zone 4 area is 58 degrees. That means the boiler runes non-stop trying to heat that area. If I turn the thermostat down to 65, the area will still be 58 degrees and the boiler will still run non-stop.
If your heating system was actually able to heat your house to 70 it might make sense to turn it down, but pretty much no one is in that situation. No one's houses are at 70 degrees (or even 68 for that matter.) Unless everyone turns their thermostats down to a temperature the system can hold the house at, it is not going to make any difference.
So we turned zone 3 down to 55, because we do not need that area heated during the day. But they are telling people to turn down to 65, what good is that going to do?
Yep Mich Con and consumers and i don’t understand why DTE is saying the same thing maybe they are paying consumers to use their pumping stations also. We’re I’m at in Oakland County it’s consumers energy.
This weather is the most whack thing I've ever seen.
Broke all of the records here this morning, it was -32.
On Monday it's supposed to be 52.
That's like it going from 20 to 104 in a few days!!
Yep same here it’s bizarre - 9 here this morning but both vehicles started right up no problems. Of course i keep starting them every 5 hours and let run for at least 20 min just to be on the safe side since we have no garage. was going to use battery tender but didn’t want to stand outside to long hooking it up and then taking it off in the freezing cold.
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