At DTE, they understand that providing reliable electricity to customers on an everyday basis is an essential need – and that need intensifies in the midst of the global pandemic.
The Customer Excellence team is up to the challenge, the company said.
Stood up in 2019, the Customer Excellence team performs infrastructure equipment upgrades and necessary tree-trim work on circuits most susceptible to outages. They are supplementing the teams who are focused on electric infrastructure upgrades across Southeast Michigan.
The work provides peace of mind to customers – and more importantly – the power to cook food and wash clothes in a time of advised quarantine.
“We created the Customer Excellence team to perform quick and efficient fixes to some of the older portions of our electric grid,” said Lorenzo Romeri, the director of Emergency Preparedness and Response at DTE. “Their work has filled a need with overwhelmingly positive results and now we’ll continue to lean on them to make sure our customers’ needs are cared for during the coronavirus outbreak.”
For the team, most of the work is the same as it was before the pandemic.
Engineers analyze and patrol circuits to identify where work needs to be done and tree trim and overhead crews perform the work safely and efficiently. The major differences are adhering to the new health and safety protocols, while still making sure all proper safety procedures are followed for that specific job, as well as limiting customer interaction to help mitigate the spread of the virus.
“We’re really focused on following all the safety and social distancing procedures to ensure our crews stay healthy and can complete the work for our customers,” said Adam Kimbler, an arborist in Distribution Operations at DTE. “(Customers) rely on us to be there in their time of need and we take great pride in being able to deliver the best service possible.
“And we’ll continue to do that. No matter what challenge is in our way.”