PSE says windstorm ‘comparable to a hurricane’ with ‘unprecedented damage’

Company crews rally to restore power to thousands of customers over 5-day period

By Steve Hunter • November 22, 2024 1:01 pm

Puget Sound Energy (PSE) leaders say the windstorm that struck parts of Western Washington “was comparable to a hurricane” and “did unprecedented damage” to its high-voltage transmission system.

That system provides the poles and wires that carry electricity from where it is produced to the communities the company serves, according to a Nov. 21 PSE letter to customers explaining why it has taken anywhere from one to five days to restore power for thousands of customers, many of them in King County.

“Without fixing those lines first, we cannot get power back into many neighborhoods,” according to PSE. “Much of this work takes place in hard to reach, remote parts of Western Washington.”

As of 6 a.m. Friday, Nov. 22, 166,464 PSE customers remained without power. In the previous 24 hours, the company restored power to about 120,000 customers. After the storm struck Tuesday, Nov. 19 into Wednesday, Nov. 20, PSE had 474,032 customers without power in Western Washington.

PSE has had 143 line crews working around the clock, which is 3.5 times its usual number of crews. Other utilities in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Canada provided crews to help restore power.

In addition to the line crews, the company has 70 tree crews whose sole job is removing the dangerous and downed debris so line crews can restore power.

“As you have witnessed in this storm, there is a tremendous amount of work for these crews,” according to PSE.

In total, PSE brought in more than 1,000 support personnel from outside the company to help with restoration, in addition to mobilizing all of its PSE teams and resources.

Damage is heaviest in King County. PSE expects to restore power to the majority of its King County customers by noon Saturday, Nov. 23.

For most remaining PSE customers in Pierce County, the outages are impacting small pockets of customers that have individual estimated restoration times. For customers in Whatcom, Skagit, Island and Kitsap counties, PSE anticipates power will be restored by 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 22.

“We do know there is work to do on the distribution lines that run through neighborhoods and we will get to that work as soon as possible,” according to PSE. “We have been prioritizing critical community assets like schools and hospitals.”

With power out at so many schools, the Kent School District closed all schools Wednesday, Nov. 20 through Friday, Nov. 22.

At one point, PSE had nearly 50 substations knocked out of service. Each substation serves about 5,000 customers each.