Why the ten-percent AES cap—not a shopping portal—defines electric strategy
Michigan's Electric Customer Choice program is a limited allotment, not a standing marketplace. Public Act 286, codified at MCL 460.10a, allows no more than ten percent of an electric utility's average weather-adjusted retail sales from the preceding calendar year to take service from an Alternative Electric Supplier at any time. When that allotment is full, the Michigan Public Service Commission directs utilities to place additional applicants in a ranked queue rather than enroll them.
The 2025 Electric Competition Status Report treats the major investor-owned programs as fully subscribed and records approximately 5,101 accounts waiting for space. Nearly all participating load is commercial or industrial. A typical coin laundry opening on a new meter does not jump the queue because a broker promised choice, because a neighboring factory is on AES, or because gas marketers already serve the same strip center.
Regulated default supply from DTE Electric or Consumers Energy is the expected generation path until a queued account is notified that cap space exists. Delivery, metering, and outage restoration stay with the incumbent utility whether the store is on AES, on the waitlist, or on default service. MISO membership provides wholesale context; it does not create retail enrollment rights.
Owners comparing acquisition targets should treat an inherited AES enrollment as a documented asset and a vacant waitlist position as a regulatory fact, not a closing-table talking point. Recheck the MPSC electric choice page and the latest competition status report before any diligence memo claims electric shopping is available.
Cap tracking is utility-specific. Space that appears on one company's tracker does not transfer to the other. A store that moves from a Consumers Energy service address to a DTE Electric address starts over under DTE's allotment and queue rules.
DTE versus Consumers Energy: two queues, two gas marketer lists
Southeast Michigan commercial corridors generally sit on DTE Electric and DTE Gas. West Michigan and much of the Lower Peninsula sit on Consumers Energy for both fuels. Upper Peninsula Power, UMERC, Cloverland, and Indiana Michigan Power also run capped choice programs, but most coin laundries owners will first confirm whether the bill header says DTE or Consumers.
Each electric utility keeps its own ten-percent tracker and its own waitlist. A marketer authorized to enroll AES load on DTE Electric cannot use that relationship to enroll a Consumers Energy meter. The reverse is also true. Statewide statute sets the cap; utility tariffs and queue administration decide who is next.
Gas shopping is equally utility-specific. MI Gas Choice lets eligible commercial accounts on participating local distribution companies select a licensed marketer for commodity while the utility continues pipeline delivery and emergency response. A marketer list that works on DTE Gas may not serve Consumers Energy gas, and municipal or cooperative pockets can sit outside both programs.
Multi-store operators expanding from Metro Detroit into Kent County, or the other direction, must rebuild both the electric cap file and the gas marketer shortlist. Importing a Detroit AES anecdote into a Grand Rapids diligence packet is the most common statewide error.
Bill headers beat mailing cities. Dearborn Heights, Walker, Wyoming, and other fringe municipalities can sit a few blocks from a different utility's feeder. Confirm both the electric and gas company names on recent invoices before any enrollment conversation.
MI Gas Choice as the working procurement path while AES stays closed
Because the electric program is fully subscribed, dryer-heavy stores should put commercial gas procurement first. MI Gas Choice remains open for eligible residential and commercial accounts on participating utilities, including DTE Gas and Consumers Energy gas. The marketer sells commodity; the utility still owns the pipes, reads the meter, and responds to leaks.
Collect twelve months of therms, including lake-effect and deep-winter months when dryer banks run longest. Compare licensed marketer offers to the regulated default gas supply on your actual commercial class. Do not use a residential teaser or an electric AES pitch as a substitute for the gas disclosure.
Contract term, renewal notice, and assignment language matter more than a headline therm number. Change-of-ownership on a purchased store can leave an auto-renewing marketer contract in place if nobody requested the assignment file. Ask for the current gas supply agreement in diligence even when the seller remembers shopping electric years ago.
Electric and gas calendars stay independent. Waiting to renew a gas contract because you hope the AES queue will move during the lease term trades a controllable commodity decision for a statutory allotment you do not control.
Staff should keep utility gas-emergency numbers posted separately from marketer billing lines. A winter outage or odor call still goes to DTE or Consumers, not to the commodity supplier printed on the invoice.
Reading statewide bills when AES is waitlisted
On electric invoices for most new commercial accounts, generation appears as regulated default supply under DTE Electric or Consumers Energy labels. Delivery riders, distribution charges, and Commission-approved surcharges remain on every bill whether or not the store is ever offered AES space.
If a purchased store already takes AES service, the supplier name appears on the generation line while the utility still bills delivery. That inherited enrollment is the exception, not the rule for a newly established meter. Confirm enrollment status in writing with the utility and the current AES before assuming you can shop a replacement supplier.
On gas invoices, look for either regulated default commodity or a MI Gas Choice marketer name. Pipeline delivery and safety-related charges stay with the local distribution company after a marketer switch. Mixing those line items into an electric savings spreadsheet hides the only fuel you can usually shop.
Solicitations that bundle electric AES and gas choice in one packet should be split immediately. The gas half may be real. The electric half is not actionable while the ten-percent cap is full and thousands of accounts remain queued per the 2025 status report.
Acquisition files should include a printout or saved copy of the current MPSC electric choice status page dated for the review. Verbal seller memories of shopping generation before the cap closed do not substitute for the Commission report.
- Identify DTE versus Consumers on both electric and gas headers.
- Treat AES generation as waitlisted unless enrollment is already documented.
- Split MI Gas Choice commodity from pipeline delivery on every gas bill.
- Archive the 2025 competition report date in the diligence folder.
Procurement sequence: document the queue, then shop gas
Start with the MPSC Electric Customer Choice page and the latest Electric Competition Status Report. Record whether the relevant utility's program is fully subscribed and whether a queue remains. Do not pay an enrollment fee for electric AES service that the utility cannot accept under MCL 460.10a.
If the store already sits on AES, compare the current supplier contract to regulated default supply and to any remaining term or termination language. Switching AES suppliers, when allowed, is a different task from joining the program for the first time.
For gas, use MI Gas Choice listings filtered to the utility on the bill. Gather two or three licensed marketer disclosures with matching term structures and model them against actual therms. Independent review looks at product fit and assignment risk, not a promised dual-fuel discount.
Recheck cap status before every acquisition or refinance that assumes electric shopping. Commission reports update on their own calendar. A memo written against last year's queue can be stale by the time a purchase agreement is signed.
Keep MISO Zone 7 or other wholesale commentary in a background folder. Regional prices may influence default-supply filings; they do not open AES space for a new commercial laundry meter.
Territory traps: Michigan is not ERCOT, and DTE is not Consumers
Texas-style Retail Electric Provider shopping and Pennsylvania-style dual-fuel portals do not describe this market. There is no statewide electric shopping site that enrolls a typical coin laundry tomorrow. Brochures that imply otherwise are using another state's statute.
Detroit-area DTE Electric tariffs, queue position, and gas marketer lists do not transfer to Grand Rapids Consumers Energy accounts. The ten-percent law is shared; the trackers are not. Benchmarking files must be retagged when a second store opens on the other utility.
Municipal lighting or cooperative pockets exist outside the large IOU footprints. A mailing address that says Michigan does not prove AES-queue eligibility or MI Gas Choice access. The utility name on the bill is the eligibility test.
Change of ownership does not automatically transfer a queue position or an AES contract. Confirm Commission and supplier assignment rules in writing. Hoping the seller's waitlist rank follows the deed is not a procurement plan.
Upper Peninsula and Indiana Michigan Power accounts follow the same statutory cap with their own trackers. Do not assume Lower Peninsula DTE or Consumers anecdotes apply to those utilities without reading their cap reports.
Statewide owner checklist before anyone mentions AES enrollment
Confirm DTE or Consumers—or another named utility—on both meters at the exact service address. Pull twelve months of electric and gas history and separate delivery from commodity on each invoice.
Open the MPSC electric choice page and the 2025 Electric Competition Status Report. Write down that the program is fully subscribed and that approximately 5,101 accounts remain queued. Refuse electric AES contracts that cannot cite current cap eligibility for that account.
Shop MI Gas Choice for commercial dryer therms on the correct utility list. Read renewal and assignment clauses before winter. Post utility gas-emergency and electric-outage numbers for staff; marketers do not restore pipes or wires.
After any gas marketer enrollment, check the first bill to confirm pipeline delivery stayed under utility labels and only the commodity line changed. Calendar gas renewals independently from any AES-queue monitoring reminder.
Independent review for Michigan stores starts with cap status on electric and marketer readiness on gas. That order is the opposite of most unsolicited sales calls, and it is the order that matches Commission rules.
- Verify MCL 460.10a cap status before any AES fee.
- Use the utility-specific MI Gas Choice list, not a statewide guess.
- Keep DTE and Consumers files in separate folders.
- Treat inherited AES enrollment as documented, not assumed.
- Recheck the MPSC queue before acquisition closing.
