Michigan empty reels: both peninsulas

DTE and Consumers: two grids under rebuild

EIA's 2024 table of Michigan's top five retailers is led by DTE Electric and Consumers Energy, followed by Constellation NewEnergy, a retail marketer, then Indiana Michigan Power in the southwest corner and the City of Lansing's utility. DTE serves Detroit and southeast Michigan; Consumers serves most of the rest of the Lower Peninsula outside the big cities.

Both have been spending heavily on reliability: replacing old poles and wire, rebuilding substations, and moving lines underground in places where trees and ice storms keep taking them down. That work runs through cable reels, and the empties stack up at service centers and contractor yards across the state.

The fourth-largest BEAD share

NTIA's June 2023 BEAD table gave Michigan $1,559,362,479.29. Only Texas, California and Missouri received more. The unserved areas are mostly in the northern Lower Peninsula and the Upper Peninsula, with lakes, forest, wetland and long distances between homes, plus pockets of the farm Thumb and the southwest.

Building fiber across country like that takes a lot of cable per home, and the reels empty along the route. Crews also need empties to take back remnants. In the U.P., where the nearest other build may be a long drive away, a reel that can be reused locally saves real money.

Spring weight limits and winter

Michigan, like its neighbors in the upper Midwest, puts seasonal weight restrictions on many roads during the spring thaw, when frost coming out of the ground leaves roadbeds soft. County roads in the north are most affected. A loaded semi that could reach a rural yard in August may not be allowed on the same road in March or April.

Winter brings its own limits. Lake-effect snow off Lake Michigan and Lake Superior can bury yards on the west side of the state and across the U.P. Reels under snow are hard to count, read and lift. If you can, stand empties on their flanges in a cleared row before the snow comes, stencils facing out.

• Tell us if your yard is on a road with seasonal weight limits.
• Mention if the yard is plowed in winter and who plows it.
• Say whether the ground is gravel, paved or dirt.
• If timing is flexible, say so; a summer pickup may cost less than a spring one.

Getting reels across the state

I-94 crosses southern Michigan from Detroit through Jackson and Kalamazoo to Benton Harbor and the Indiana line. I-96 links Detroit with Lansing and Grand Rapids. I-75 runs north from Toledo through Detroit, Flint and Saginaw to the Mackinac Bridge and Sault Ste. Marie. I-69 runs from Port Huron through Flint and Lansing toward Indiana. I-196 connects Grand Rapids with the lakeshore.

Southeast Michigan, from Detroit to Ann Arbor and Flint, holds most of the population and many of the reels. Lots there are close to Toledo and northwest Ohio. West Michigan lots often pair with northern Indiana. Northern lower lots travel down I-75 or US-131. The U.P. is the outlier: from Marquette or Escanaba, the nearest buyer may be in Green Bay, Wisconsin, not in Michigan at all.

Where Michigan's reels come from

No wire or cable plant in Michigan turned up on the makers' location pages we checked, so every reel here arrived full from out of state. The closest sources are the plants in Indiana and Kentucky and the big clusters further south. Freight that long makes a used reel already in Michigan worth more to a Michigan buyer.

Besides utility and fiber work, Michigan's factories, especially the auto and parts plants, buy wire and harness components on reels and spools. Factory empties tend to be clean, dry and uniform, which makes them good lots.

Michigan's peninsulas also mean many reels are stored near water, in yards that see heavy snow, spring melt and humid summers. Wood that has been through a few of those cycles on bare ground loses strength at the flange rim first. Photos of a flange edge and the drum help us judge a Michigan lot before a truck is sent.

Buying reels in Michigan

If you need reels, tell us the cable, the footage per reel and where they should land. For a southeast Michigan job we can usually find a lot within the region. For a northern job, we'll compare a lot from downstate with one from Wisconsin or northern Indiana and tell you which costs less delivered.

Don't overbuy on size. A reel one size bigger than your cable needs takes up more room on the truck and more space in your yard. Our capacity calculator, built on the NEMA formula, shows how much cable each size holds.

Sending us a Michigan lot

1. 01

   Size and count

   Flange x traverse x drum for each group, and how many.

2. 02

   Stencil photos

   One per size, and a wide shot of the pile.

3. 03

   Road and season

   Whether the road has seasonal limits and whether the yard is plowed.

4. 04

   Loading

   Forklift, dock or loader, and any site rules for drivers.