Letter to our customers

To our customers without power: we know you are frustrated. The limited information we have been able to provide on-line, and the fact that you do not yet see our crews working in your neighborhood, is causing you to wonder what is happening.

This system was so strong that it was comparable to a hurricane and did unprecedented damage to our high-voltage transmission system – the poles and wires that carry electricity from where it is produced to the communities we serve. Without fixing those lines first, we cannot get power back into many neighborhoods. Much of this work takes place in hard to reach, remote parts of western Washington.

We have 143 line crews working around the clock – 3.5 times what we have usually, thanks to crews from other utilities in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Canada.

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. We have been prioritizing critical community assets like schools and hospitals.

We plan to have the majority of customers back online by Saturday at noon. Many customers will have power restored sooner. However, we don’t have more specific information for many of our customers at this time, particularly in King County, which was most impacted by the storm, because of the extent of damage on the transmission system. As soon as we have estimates we can count on, we will share them immediately.

Here’s an update on the progress we have made since Wednesday night, and what we are doing now:

• We restored 34 substations with 15 remaining out of service. Substations serve about 5,000 customers each. As we re-energize these substations, more customers should get their power back on at a faster pace. As we restore these substations, that may also show us where there is additional damage that we could not fix until the substations were turned back on. In some cases, work on the distribution lines was already completed and customers will have their power restored when the substation is energized. For others, ground patrols will identify the location of distribution damage and complete the needed repairs.
• Overnight, we restored 5,300 customers per hour. As of Thursday morning, we restored power to more than 315,000 customers including more than 60 schools.  
• In addition to the line crews, we have 70 tree crews whose sole job is removing the dangerous and downed debris so our line crews can restore power. As you have witnessed in this storm, there is a tremendous amount of work for these crews.
• In total, we have brought in more than 1,000 support personnel from outside PSE to help with restoration, in addition to mobilizing all our PSE teams and resources.

We are closely watching additional windy weather forecasted to hit our region Friday. This may impact our ability to restore customers in the expected timeframe and cause additional outages. We will continue to work around the clock in full force until power is restored to every single customer. Please be respectful of the workers doing everything they can to restore your power. There is nothing more important than the safety of our communities, customers, and employees.