Detroit Edison

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151106-2026 EDT

DTE Energy is the new name for Detroit Edison that also now includes Michigan Consolidated Gas and some other subsiduaries. The high voltage distribution lines of the old Detroit Edison were separated out to a new company called ITC. ITC as a separate company has expanded to areas outside southeastern Michigan.

DTE has a website, a smartphone application called Insight, and an appendage to Insight called Energy Bridge. This post is directed to DTE area people, but others can add their comments.

When smart meters were installed the ability to obtain data from the smart meters was added to the website. The presentation was not too bad, but needed some improvement. The finest time resolution was one hour with data not being available until about 1.5 days after collection. Not real time. With a TED system I get data immeadiately and resolved to 1 second increments. DTE also provided a download capabilty in addition to on-screen graphs.

About two years ago the website was upgraded (downgrade is a better description). There were some improvements, but other capability was downgraded. This year last month the website was completely redone. The smart meter data is gone, and the human interface is badly designed. My description is that it is junk software.

The smart phone Insight application is apparently designed to replace the previous data collection that was provided in the website. It does a poor job. Still has the 1.5 day delay and 1 hour quantizing of data. Cannot download data.

The bridge is a box that RF links to the smart meter, and communicates the meter data to your router and your smartphone application. No softeare to communicate to a computer. Haven't gotten mine to work yet. Badly written software, and instructions.

DTE website and Insight people are not willing to accept any negative comments or suggestions, and you can not get thru to a person that really can make a difference.

For you that have played with DTE software and devices what has been your experience?

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151113-1601 EST

Update.

Since my last comments I have had numerous contacts with the 800 number tech support people with respect to the "bridge" device and its application. Neither the system (software) nor the 800 reps can properly diagnose "bridge" problems. You are sent in directions that are unnecessary with the information that is available. They won't listen to what you tell them.

So after I have wasted time doing unnecessary operations they sent service people out today, but the appointment was for yesterday at 12:30.

Their system provided erronous information, as seen with messages on my smartphone, that the system was functioning properly when in fact it was not. The success message that was provided should have been an error message. Instead the message said the system was working and sending me data.

The telephone people, tech support, assume it is either a signal strength or interference problem. The actual problem was something with the "bridge" box. Replacing the box solved the problem. The field tech said they have not generally found an interference problem. So why do the 800 people make this a big issue? Signal strength could be a problem, but I had tried the 'bridge" next to the meter, and up to 15 ft away, and also away from RF sourcres by moving my Comcast modem closer to the basement floor.

Is the Insight Bridge useful?

Limitedly.

There is no download capability, and also none via the website anymore.

Response time is about 5 seconds, but possibly up to 10 seconds.

Resolution is 1 W, but not really, noise might be in the range of 5 W. I can not really tell because I can not control voltage.

A 70 mfd PFC capacitor might increase reading by 10 W at 2000 W. But with the noise in the power signal it is hard to tell. The TED 1000 system shows a drop of about 40 W at 2000 W with this same capacitor. This is a high quality capacitor and power change should be near zero. Kill-A-Watt does good job of reading near 0 power on this capacitor.

The DTE application does not constantly show 3 decimal places. So 2.134 changes to 2.13 for 2.130, and to 2.1 for 2.100 . Annoying.

The application keeps kicking me out and I have to re-enter name and password. The TED system is far more useful.

Insight and "bridge" are free, but not when you consider lack of function and lost time. No voltage or PF reading.

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