Consumers Energy will move forward with what they call an aggressive plan to clear trees near power lines and strengthen the grid to deliver energy to nearly 2 million homes and businesses, under spending that was approved to support the company’s Reliability Roadmap.

Consumers Energy recently received approval from the Michigan Public Service Commission to perform line clearing work that directly improves electric reliability. Consumers says trees are the #1 cause of power outages, and the company this year plans to clear trees along 8,000 miles of lines.

They also hope to improve their power grid with infrastructure upgrades and proactive maintenance planning to find, fix, and prevent issues to help the grid’s reliability and lower costs.