GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC), which is in charge of regulating utilities, hosted a workshop in Grand Rapids Tuesday seeking to inform the public on what goes into their bills but also get feedback.

For two and a half hours, commissioners and MPSC staff conversed with ratepayers on a variety of topics in regard to electricity and gas utilities.

“There’s an old dictum that the commission speaks through its orders, but in addition to speaking, we need to listen,” Commission Chair Dan Scripps said. “This is a great opportunity to to listen to the people who ultimately pay the bills at the end of the month.”

The commission noted Michigan utility costs have actually risen 5% below inflation, but acknowledged that’s still high.

“You’ve got one in four Americans today that are having to make those impossible choices between paying their electric bill or their gas bill and feeding their family or paying for medicine that they need,” Scripps said.

Constant rate hikes were a chief concern among attendees in conversations with staff, but also the impact of data centers on power bills.

Advocates like Wende Randall, director of the Kent County Essential Needs Task Force, were in attendance. She said their hotline receives a lot of calls from people unable to afford their utilities.

“The presentations went into a level of detail that we haven’t heard in a community forum like this before,” Randall said. “I think that was really helpful. But also having the opportunity to interact directly with staff and with commissioners is a really important way for us to be able to support our community members.”

The commission welcomed the feedback while putting forth potential legislative solutions.

Monday, they sent a letter to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer providing recommendations.

“We literally go through these cases and we also know the limits of our authority under current law,” Scripps said. “So it’s a chance to say, ‘here are some things that maybe aren’t part of the conversation yet.’”

Among the 19 policies the commission wants to see, a ban on yearly rate cases, a rule to tie earnings to cost efficiency, requirements that utilities augment existing infrastructure before investing in costly upgrades.

They also recommend requirements that data centers pay the full cost imposed on the grid and an expansion of efficiency and assistance programs.

“There’s a system that that needs a lot of investment, we’re not where we want to be on reliability, but how do you balance that with the costs that customers pay and do it in the most cost effective way possible,” Scripps posited.

The MPSC will take what they heard from attendees in Grand Rapids and a second session in Detroit and factor that into rate cases and regulations.

Scripps said public input has already done a lot to transform what the agency does.

“We’re there to serve the public, and I will say, when you listen to people, you ultimately walk away with, with more than you started with,” he said.