ALPENA POWER COMPANY
401 N. Ninth Ave Alpena, Michigan 49707
For Immediate Release
March 16, 2026 6:00PM
Contact:
Ken Dragiewicz, President and COO
solutions@alpenapower.com
OUTAGE UPDATE
Current Situation
As of 5 pm approximately 12,500 or 75% of our customers remain without power. All available crews are working to restore outages including assistance from The City of Lowell, The City of Bay City, City of Sturgis, Homeworks Tri County Cooperative, Thump Electric Cooperative, and the Hydaker-Wheatlake Company. We express our thanks to the utilities and contractors helping in this difficult time, but even with the extra resources customers should plan for multi-day outages, especially those in outlying and remote areas.
Timeline
Outages began about 9 pm Sunday evening and the situation deteriorated quickly as ice buildup caused devastating damage to trees and reached their peak above 14,000 early this afternoon before progress was made as the weather moderated.
Restoration Process
The restoration process is designed to get essential services energized first then the largest number of customers on as quickly as possible. APC’s process consists of five stages:
1. Essential functions such as hospitals, 911, police, fire, water, sewer, etc.
2. Services such as fuel, grocery stores, pharmacies, etc.
3. Main feeder and distribution lines
4. Areas with the largest number of customers
5. Restore individual homes.
We are currently between phases 1 and 3 in different parts of the service territory.
Summary
As we approach 24 hours since the ice storm began, I want to thank our customers for their patience and understanding and the community for their support.
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