DTE Energy offers buyouts to 30% of workforce

Detroit-based DTE Energy is offering buyouts to about 3,000 employees, or about 30% of its workforce.

The utility, one of Michigan’s largest, along with Jackson-based Consumers Energy, said the voluntary separation incentive program is being offered to employees primarily in corporate and staff roles. Most employees who participate in the voluntary program will leave the company in March, Dan Miner, a spokesperson for DTE, said.

“We’re taking action to further focus on what matters most to our customers: providing increasingly safe, reliable and cleaner energy while keeping their bills affordable during this time of massive investment in transforming the way we generate and distribute energy,” Diane Antishin, vice president of human resources and chief diversity and inclusion officer, said in an emailed statement. “At the same time, this voluntary program will enable us to provide new opportunities for our team members to learn, grow and contribute while keeping DTE a great place to work.”

The move comes a month after the utility didn’t get the full electric rate increase it requested. The Michigan Public Service Commission approved a $368.1 million electricity rate increase for DTE Energy in December, a more than 40% reduction from the $622 million rate increase the utility initially requested in February.

DTE, which provides electricity to 2.3 million customers in southeast Michigan and natural gas service to 1.3 million customers in Michigan, also has recently reported that its earnings in the third quarter of last year were down compared with the year prior. The utility reported a profit of $332 million in the third quarter, down from $387 million in the same period last year. Operating earnings were $298 million, down from $311 million in the third quarter of 2022.

On the company’s third-quarter earnings call, DTE Chairman and CEO Jerry Norcia described 2023 as “essentially a unicorn of a year,” with several catastrophic storms that impacted the utility’s earnings and a cool summer in Michigan that meant less revenue for the utility.

He said on the call that DTE would offset some of the challenges from last year with cost reductions at the company.

Consumers Energy also recently offered buyouts to its employees. The utility offered buyouts to 4,900 nonunion employees in May, and it was reported that about 400 employees accepted.