DTE Energy, a Detroit -based diversified energy company involved in the development and management of energy-related businesses and services nationwide, has recently launched a new interactive mobile Android (News - Alert) application.

To bring useful information to customers in the way they want or in an outage situation, where they are able to see it, DTE Energy has added this mobile capability to its existing suite of outage-related offerings.

The newly announced Android App will allow customers to access a variety of up-to-the-minute information, including outage information from their smartphones.

Outage Center, located at dteenergy.com, is a central area online where consumers interested in getting the latest information about power outages, can go to get tips on what to do during a storm or find out answers to other frequently asked questions.

Officials said that DTE Energy is one of the first utilities in the country that allows customers to report power outages via a downloadable native mobile smartphone application. 

DTE Energy customers using the app will be able to report power outages, view the status of a reported problem and explore a map illustrating the number of outages reported throughout the area.

"We have a variety of tools for our customers already available on the DTE Energy website and we want to extend those tools in new and engaging ways," said Patrick Duffy, Customer Service Manager with DTE Energy, in a release.

Officials said that the DTE Energy Outage Center Google (News - Alert) Android App is available free of charge from the Android Marketplace.

In related news, DTE Energy reported it is hosting its third annual Customer Assistance Day at Cobo Hall, to help as many as 5,000 customers struggling to pay their utility bills.