Puget Sound Energy’s Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility

November Wind Storm

We understand the stress and disruption that outages can cause for you and your family and that it's especially challenging on cold days and nights. We continue our around-the-clock work to restore your power due to Tuesday’s damaging windstorm.

As of 11:59 p.m., we have 298,294 customers out of power, with more than 297,566 customers restored since the start of the storm. However, due to extensive wind and equipment damage, power for some customers may be out for an extended period. We are updating our outage map with the best information available and will continue to provide updates as restoration continues. Please note that outage numbers will fluctuate as restorations are occurring throughout the system. Our focus overnight continues to be on transmission lines to critical infrastructure and public safety. Our PSE dispatch team has fielded over 2,000 escalated 911 calls since Tuesday afternoon.

Our first step in restoring power is damage assessment: getting a look at what’s been done to the system and determining the extent of repairs that are needed. Crews continue to survey damage on the ground overnight and helicopter patrols will resume tomorrow morning. On Wednesday, helicopter patrols spent 9 hours in total flight assessing our transmission lines for damage. We will provide restoration updates through our outage map at pse.com/outages as information becomes available.

Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility

Located near Ellensburg in Kittitas County, PSE's second wind facility — Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility – has 149 turbines spanning across 10,000 acres. The facility can generate up to 273 megawatts of electricity, enough to serve an average of 60,000 homes annually. Wild Horse came on line in December 2006, and was expanded in 2009.

Wild Horse benefits the surrounding community by creating jobs and providing leasing income for landowners. The facility also produces significant local tax revenue.

Wild Horse also contains one of the largest solar-power arrays in Washington. Its 2,723 solar panels together produce a peak of 500KW of electrical energy.

PSE also operates the Renewable Energy Center at Wild Horse. Check out the tours and recreational opportunities we offer at the facility and visit facebook.com/wildhorseREC for more information.

Fast facts

Its turbines can produce electricity at wind speeds as low as 9 mph. They reach their peak of production at 31 mph and shut down at constant wind speeds above 56 mph.
The total height of each tower with blades fully extended is 351 feet; total weight is approximately 223 tons.
Towers are 221 feet high and weigh 104 tons.
Each turbine blade is 129 feet long and weighs over 7 tons.
The diameter of each rotor is larger than the wingspan of a Boeing 747.
Each generator can produce 690 volts, which is stepped-up to 34,500 volts by an on-board transformer.
The construction of each tower's foundation required 120 anchor bolts, 30,954 nuts, and 11,750 cubic yards of concrete.
Each anchor bolt is 28 feet long and weighs approximately 150 lbs. For all 149 turbines at Wild Horse, approximately 95 miles of foundation anchor bolts were installed.
Turbine generators are manufactured by Vestas. More Vestas turbine facts.

The three large wind farms we own and operate, including Wild Horse, Lower Snake River and Hopkins Ridge, generate enough power, on average, to serve 165,000 homes annually. In some cases, PSE sells any the excess green-energy generated by our wind facilities to other entities across the nation. The revenue from these sales helps to reduce our customers’ power costs and allows other utilities to take advantage of the benefits of renewable energy.