The Michigan Public Service Commission has approved a $139.2 million yearly natural gas rate increase for Consumers Energy, well below the $240 million the utility asked for. The commission signed off on October 15, according to the Michigan attorney general’s office. For a typical residential customer, the approved increase works out to 4.3%.
The utility serves about 1.8 million natural gas customers in Michigan, so the decision reaches a large share of the state’s households. The attorney general’s office, which fought the request, described the outcome in its October 15 release on the decision.
Anyone who heats a home or cooks with gas from Consumers Energy will see the new rate on a future bill, and older households on fixed incomes have the most to check. The questions are when the new rates start, what the utility’s payment plans offer, and whether a state assistance program covers part of the bill. The commission’s own pages list the state’s help programs, covered further down.
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How far the commission cut the request
Consumers Energy had sought about 10%, or $240 million more a year across all customers. The $139.2 million approved is about 58% of that, or roughly $100.8 million less. The commission also set the utility’s authorized return on equity, the profit rate it may earn on its investment, at 9.8%.
The company asked for the increase soon after regulators approved a separate gas increase in September 2025. Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office said in testimony it filed in April that the request would have raised residential bills about 8%, plus a higher monthly service charge.
That earlier increase is the context for the new one. The commission’s own news release on its September 30, 2025 order authorized $157,495,000, and said a typical residential customer using 75 hundred cubic feet of gas would pay $6.44 more per month, or 8.1%, starting November 1.
Gas customers in Michigan have now been through two rate increases in about a year. The new 4.3% is smaller than the 8.1% last year, but it arrives on top of the earlier rise, not in place of it.
What the attorney general wanted instead
Nessel urged the commission to limit the increase to 3.5%, which her office said would have saved customers more than $146 million. Her office also asked regulators not to raise monthly service charges and to reject a revenue decoupling mechanism that would make ratepayers cover revenue the utility loses in warmer months and from lower sales.
The attorney general’s office said it found inflated capital spending projections and unreasonable profit margins in the application. It also says its interventions in utility cases have saved Michigan consumers more than $4.6 billion.
Nessel said that utility customers across the state regularly ask when their energy bills will stop climbing, and that the answer is “never.” She added that “change must come” to what she called the current system of annual on-demand rate hikes.
The attorney general’s release does not say whether the commission accepted or rejected the decoupling mechanism or the service charge request. It also does not give a start date for the new rates or the dollar amount a typical monthly bill will rise.
The utility’s case for the investment
A Consumers Energy spokesperson defended the request to WNEM, that any increase in costs matters to customers and that investments in the gas system let the company stay ahead of potential problems. The spokesperson was not named in the report.
The 2025 order shows what the money paid for last time. The commission allowed $208.93 million for an infrastructure replacement program that swaps out the pipeline materials at highest risk of leaks, and $42.51 million to replace older high-risk service lines.
The same order included $1.9 million for a project meant to make it easier for lower-income customers to find and enroll in energy assistance programs. The commission said it would keep assessing and refining that process.
Where Michigan households can get help with the bill
The Michigan Public Service Commission tells customers who need help with electricity or heating bills to contact their utility and ask what protections or flexible payment options are available. Its Get Help page says help is available even when a household’s income has recently changed.
The state also runs the Michigan Energy Assistance Program. According to the commission’s program page, it pays all or part of bills for electricity, natural gas, propane, heating oil and other heating fuel for eligible low-income households, and it must prioritize vulnerable populations.
The program is funded by a charge the commission set at $1.50 per meter per month, starting with the September 2026 billing month. Customers can reach the commission’s customer assistance line at 800-292-9555, a number listed on its 2025 rate order, and the full set of consumer programs is on the Michigan Public Service Commission site.
For older households on a fixed income, a 4.3% increase is a bigger step than it sounds, because a higher bill repeats every winter month. Checking the utility’s payment plans and the state’s assistance program before the heating season, not after a missed payment, keeps options open.
Facing higher Consumers Energy gas bills this winter?
The detail that gets missed is timing. Assistance programs run on applications and renewals, and a household that misses a renewal date can face the new, higher Consumers Energy gas rate with no help lined up.
The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit pulls together heating, cooling and home-repair help, and includes an application log and renewal calendar so an older Michigan household can track what it applied for and when each one comes up again. The kit runs 64 pages, with a part on utilities and home costs and a worksheets-and-contacts section at the back.
Get the heating-help guide and renewal calendar for higher Michigan gas bills →
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
