A stormy start to winter
Between November and December, PSE’s service area was hit by four major storm events, with some customers experiencing back-to-back outages. While Bainbridge Island was most impacted by the December 14 wind event, which took out power to approximately 7,600 customers on the island, PSE’s service area hasn’t experienced a storm as significant as November’s “bomb cyclone” since December 2006. To give you a sense of the scale, we wanted to share a few statistics about the storm and our restoration efforts:
- 706,907 total customer outages; nearly 60% of PSE's electric customers were impacted over the course of the event.
- Approximately 5,360 Bainbridge Island customers lost power during the "bomb cyclone".
- 422,000 customers were out of power at the peak of the storm, with 80% of those outages in King County.
- 52 substations were knocked offline and 418 miles of transmission line were impacted, many in mountainous and hard-to-reach terrain in the Cascade Mountains and foothills.
- Five hospitals and 150 schools lost power.
- 164 line crews were staffed — four times the amount needed for normal operations, thanks to crews brought in from Washington state, Canada, Oregon and Idaho. Note, a crew includes four-to-five people plus flaggers and safety personnel.
- 70 tree crews were staffed — line crews can’t begin work until tree crews have safely removed all debris.
We know power outages can be incredibly stressful and disruptive to your family and plans, especially during the holiday season. We want to thank all of our customers impacted by these recent storm events for your patience while crews worked to restore your power.
For more information about PSE's storm response efforts and what you can do to prepare, check out these resources:
