During this firearm deer hunting season, Consumers Energy is alerting residents to the potential damage and inconvenience gunshot vandalism can cause. In the past, these types of incidents have resulted in the loss of electric service to thousands of homes and businesses.
To date in 2008, more than 32 gunshot/vandalism incidents have been reported. Gunshot damage to the utility's electric distribution system has already resulted in the loss of service to 287 homes and businesses for an average duration of 1.5 hours. In 2007, more than 5,410 customers were affected by gunshot incidents resulting in an average outage duration of 4.6 hours.
"In some instances, customers on electric life-support systems can be endangered by outages caused by gunshot vandalism damage," said Frank Johnson, senior vice president of energy operations for the utility. "In addition to the inconvenience caused by the loss of electricity, businesses and their employees can experience economic losses."
Consumers Energy offers cash rewards of varying amounts for information leading to the arrest and arraignment of those who willfully cause power outages. Information can be given to local law enforcement agencies or the utility’s asset protection department at 1-800-760-3295.
"Vandals give responsible hunters a bad image," Johnson added. He thanked sportsmen's organizations, conservation groups and individual hunters for help in preventing these occurrences.
Consumers Energy, the principal subsidiary of CMS Energy, provides natural gas and electricity to nearly 6.5 million of Michigan's 10 million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties.
