Following a series of power outages in Dexter Village - and subsequent complaints from area businesses and residents - Paul Ganz, regional manager of government relations for DTE, said the electrical grid in the area needs upgrades.

Now DTE Energy plans to build two new substations in Western Washtenaw in the next year.

The Village Council members asked Ganz to update them on what the company was planning to solve a rash of brown outs and power outages this year, which have had a negative effect on businesses in the village's industrial park.

In fact, officials said several companies have threatened to leave the village if the electrical problem isn’t fixed quickly.

Monday night, Village President Shawn Keough said that this year, one village business, Dextech, has reported six outages in seven months.

“Even momentary outages cause problems with their production,” he said.

“The village is the face of everything,” said Councilman Ray Tell. “These companies are cutting edge and one blip is all it takes,” to cause problems and the village offices receives the complaints.

Ganz said the company has been working for the last 3-4 years to find locations in the Dexter area with property that is affordable and near large transmission lines to make changes.

A new station is planned in Lima Township at a current substation location on Lima Center and Dexter Chelsea roads, while to the north in Dexter Township, a new substation is planned near North Territorial Road and Madden Road.

In total, DTE plans about $7 million in upgrades for the area.

He also assured the Village Council that the company plans to meet with companies in the business park behind closed doors to discuss their concerns about electrical service. and DTE needs to determine if there were problems with the electrical feed or if there were equipment problems that we don’t know about.”

According to information provided by the village, so far this year 10 outages have been reported in the village, while there were six outages reported in all of 2010.

In 2009, only two outages were reported for the year.

Lisa Allmendinger is a regional reporter for AnnArbor.com. She can be reached at lisaallmendinger@annarbor.com. For more Dexter stories, visit our Dexter page.