Michigan summers are gorgeous… right up until the sky turns that unsettling shade of green and the lights flicker out. And here’s the part that surprised even us: one recent study named Michigan the number one state in the country for summer power outages.
We’re not here to scare you (we promise). But if your business runs on Michigan power, the Newmind Group team thinks it’s worth a quick pep talk about what happens when the grid takes a summer vacation.
So how bad does it actually get here?
Bad enough to plan for. In 2023, Michigan had the third-longest average outage in the nation (nearly 19 hours) and our storm outages ran longer than the national average in nine of eleven years. Last July alone, a single round of storms knocked out power to roughly half a million customers statewide, with winds topping 60 mph and some folks in the dark for five days.
Five days. Not a flicker! That’s an entire work week.
What does “downtime” really cost?
More than you’d guess. For a small business, an hour of downtime runs somewhere between $1,000 and $5,000 once you tally up idle staff, missed sales, and the scramble to recover. Now run that math against a multi-day outage.
And it isn’t just lost hours. Power failures cause roughly 1 in 3 business downtime events worldwide, and the stat we hate quoting most: FEMA estimates that around 40% of businesses never reopen after a major disaster.
We really don’t mean to sound alarmist. So here’s the reassuring part: most of that risk is squarely within your control.
What can you actually do about it?
You don’t need a bunker. You need a few basics done well:
- UPS Battery backup (uninterruptible power supply) on your critical gear, so a blink doesn’t corrupt something mid-save.
- Cloud or off-site backups you’ve actually tested. An untested backup is just a hope with a file extension.
- A failover plan. A documented “if this goes down, we switch to that” for your internet and phones. A backup cellular connection can keep you running for about the price of a nice lunch (somewhere in the ballpark of $150 per month).
- A recovery plan on paper, because the middle of a storm is a rotten time to invent one.
One more Michigan-specific nudge: don’t count on the utility to make you whole. As of late 2025, the Michigan Public Service Commission outage credit is only $42/day and doesn’t kick in until you’ve spent 96 hours in a catastrophic event. Peace of mind is cheaper to build than to buy back.
Let’s get you storm-ready
Our teamcan help you sort what you truly need from what’s overkill (Jamey has ridden out more than a few of these). Measure twice, cut once. Not sure where your defenses stand right now? We’d love to lend an ear and take a look before the next green sky rolls in.
Until then, stay safe out there.