Snowmageddon! PSE`s response to the January 2012 snow and ice

SNOwMAGEDDON!
PSE’s response to the January 2012 snow and ice storm
Photo: Kevin McGowan
The Damage
Photo: Brian Morris
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Photo: Michon Culver
Photo: Brandon Raso
All Hands on deck
Employees and contractors mount united effort to
restore power in the wake of winter storms
January’s snow, ice and wind storms caused power
outages in numbers PSE hasn’t seen in years.
Following the combination of storms that began
Jan. 18, power was restored to 478,000 customers.
The calm before the storm
Light snow began falling Jan. 15, but we immediately
began preparing for worse: a forecast of potentially
widespread, heavy snowfall to hit mid-week. PSE’s
Gas Operations, Electric Operations, and Customer
Care departments, as well as
Potelco and InfraSource crews,
were alerted. An additional 24
electric line crews were brought
in and available early Wednesday,
Jan. 18.
limited by dangerous field conditions. The hardest hit
areas were Pierce, Thurston and South King counties.
All hands on deck!
Although the number of customers without power
was in the tens of thousands the morning of Jan. 19,
by the early afternoon it had reached the hundreds
of thousands. Many employees had been called
into action, but Senior Vice President – Delivery
Operations Sue McLain asked everyone within the
company to be ready to forgo their
regular work for assigned stormresponse duties.
Together with support personnel,
nearly 2,000 people were part
of the restoration effort. 285 line
Those preparatory steps left us
crews and 98 tree crews, including
well positioned for the deep but
many called in from the western
Photo: Charlie Kirry
powdery snow that blanketed
U.S. and Canada, undertook the
Storm damage was extensive in the
most of western Washington on
huge task of restoring power.
South Sound area.
Wednesday morning. PSE and
PSE employees from natural
contractor personnel were well-equipped to
gas operations, operations services, and power
maneuver safely to quickly fix the spotty power
generation, to name a few, pitched in. Along with
outages that resulted and address natural gas
service providers, mutual assistance utility crews and
customer service issues.
contractor crews, they worked around the clock to
get customers back on line as quickly and safely as
But on Thursday morning, snow turned to freezing
possible.
rain. Snow-laden trees and limbs buckled under the
weight of the new layer of ice, causing branches to
snap and fall onto power lines.
The resulting damage was incredible. Snow, slush
and icy conditions made it treacherous or impossible
to reach some areas to assess the damage and
begin repairs. The morning’s assessments of damage
were of limited value because freezing rain and ice
continued to batter the electric system throughout the
day and night. As with other emergency-response
organizations, what PSE could accomplish was
Agents in the Customer Access Center, assisted
by staff from Corporate Billing, Vendor Collections,
Customer Construction Services, Metering Network
Services and Energy Advisors, handled a flood of
calls from customers reporting outages, downed
lines or other damage. They provided customers with
information on warming center locations and did their
best to provide restoration estimates. Employees in
the Communications and Community and Business
(continued on page 15)
Cover: A crew from Sturgeon Electric in Colorado restores power to a neighborhood in Lacey. Top of opposite page: Rocky
Mountain Contractors from Montana clear debris to restore power along Carnation Farm Road in Carnation. Opposite
page, bottom left: A snapped pole in the Rochester area. Opposite page, bottom right: A layer of ice encases a crossarm.
Ice coated snow-covered tree limbs across the region, forcing them onto power lines.
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marshalling our forces
We got by with a little help from our friends
Special thanks to our service providers, Potelco, Asplundh and Infrasource, and to the following companies
for sending line crews, tree crews and flaggers to help fix the damage and restore power.
Advanced Government Services, Washington
K & D Services Inc.: Washington
Alltec: British Columbia
Labor Ready: Washington
Altus Traffic: Washington
Magnum Power: British Columbia, Washington
Arctic Power: British Columbia
Michels Power: Washington, California
BPA: Washington
Mountain Power: Washington
BPA Transmission: Washington
Moza Construction: Washington
Christenson Electric: Oregon
Northwest Helicopter: Washington
City Pacific: Washington, Alaska
NW Utilities: Washington
Classic Helicopter: Washington
PAR Electrical Contractors: Colorado, California, DJ’s Electrical: Washington
E.M. Kaelin Trucking: Washington
Pacific Power: Oregon
Galbraith Power: British Columbia
Pend Oreille County PUD: Oregon
H&M: Oregon
Portland General Electric: Oregon
H&M PEI: Alberta, British Columbia
Power City Electric: Washington
Hawkeye: Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, Oregon
Power Technology: Washington
Hotline Construction: California
Puget Sound Coach Lines: Washington
ILB: Oregon, California
Rocky Mountain Contractors: Montana
Washington
Seattle City Light: Washington
Sturgeon Electric: Colorado
Valley Powerline: British Columbia
Vera Water and Power: Washington
Wilson Construction: Oregon, California
Photo: Kevin McGowan
Above: Power line crews gather at a staging area at the South Sound Shopping Mall in Lacey. More than 280 line crews,
including many from across the western U.S. and Canada, joined with 98 tree trimming crews in the restoration effort.
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marshalling our forces
Photo: Carey Rose
Photo: Carey Rose
Above: Once the fog cleared, helicopters patrolled transmission lines damaged by the storm in remote areas that were
unreachable due to snow and blocked roads. Inset: Director of Engineering Greg Zeller (left) and Service Lineman Ray
Haley rely on a flashlight to help them plot helicopter surveillance routes from a Carnation location with no power.
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marshalling our forces
Photo: Gene Torres
Photo: Andy Wappler
Top: Bryan Sabari, manager of Corporate Safety, conducts safety orientation for crews from Portland General Electric.
Bottom: President and CEO Kimberly Harris (right) visits with flaggers at the Kent Service Center.
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marshalling our forces
Photo: Brian Morris
Photo: Scott Harder
Photo: Kevin McGowan
Photo: Casey Cochrane
Background photo: Carey Rose
Clockwise from top: In a North Bend parking lot, a lineman from Rocky Mountain Contractors suits up for an 18-hour
shift; crews from out of state assemble at the South Sound Mall in Lacey to receive their assignments; Customer Field
Representative Gary Fink of the Olympia Service Center chains up to transport a damage assessor into the field; and
staffers at the Olympia Storm Base monitor the progress of the restoration effort in front of a map that marks the locations of
crews and sites where work is underway.
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Attacking the damage
Photo: Brian Morris
Above: A Potelco crew from Bellingham works to restore power along East Lake Sammamish Parkway in Issaquah.
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Attacking the damage
Photo: Charlie Kirry
Photo: Kevin McGowan
Photo:
Gene Torres
Photo: Charlie Kirry
Background photo:Kevin McGowan
Clockwise from top: An Asplundh tree trimmer uses a hydraulic chainsaw to clear branches from powerlines near Olympia;
linemen from PAR Electrical Contractors in California trim the damage from a pole in Covington; employees from Potelco
and PSE plot their next move to restore power to an Olympia neighborhood near 41st NW and Steamboat Island Road; and
a worker from Sturgeon Electric in Colorado assesses damage along Sleater-Kinney Road in Lacey.
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Attacking the damage
Photo: Gene Torres
Photo: Grant Ringel
Photo: Kevin McGowan
Photo: Brian Morris
Top: Crews gather at PSE’s South King Storm Base in Kent to refuel with some breakfast and coffee before heading back
to work. Bottom left: PSE Customer Field Service Technician T.J. Shima (left) works with Randy Hagen and Ken Stewart of
InfraSource to shut off the natural gas to homes damaged in a landslide in Bellevue off West Lake Sammamish Parkway.
Bottom center: A lineman from Sturgeon Electric in Colorado scales a power pole to restore power to a neighborhood in
Lacey. Bottom right: A Potelco crew clears branches from a line in Issaquah.
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Attacking the damage
Working through the nights
Photo: Gene Torres
Photo: Brian Morris
Photo: Kevin McGowan
Photo: Brian Morris
Photo: Gene Torres
Top and bottom: Crews from Tualatin, Oregon work to restore power near the intersection of Pioneer and Shaw in Puyallup.
Inset, left to right: A lineman uses his knife and the back of his truck to prepare breakfast from a can; Asplundh tree
trimming crews from the Tri-Cities assist line crews in clearing away branches near Sunrise Beach Road in Olympia; and a
crew from Valley Power Lines in British Columbia continues to work as the sun sets along SE Jones Road in Renton.
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Caring for customers
Photo by: John Smith
Photo: Charlie Kirry
Photo: Gene Torres
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Photo: Carey Rose
Top: Toni Stargel, lead customer service representative, discusses repair time frames with a customer at the Olympia
Service Center. Bottom left: Members of the company’s communications team, including Vice President Andy Wappler,
shown here with a KOMO-TV reporter in Seatac, were available 24 hours a day to provide customers with the latest
reports on estimated restoration times. Bottom right: A computer monitor in the Bothell Customer Access Center tracks
customer calls on Jan. 24, when about 17,000 customers were without power. At the peak of the outage, the Access
Center was answering 46,000 calls a day, compared to 9,000 on a normal day.
Caring for customers
By the numbers
478,000 Customers whose power was restored
67 Transmission line segments out
74 Substations out
87 miles Length of conductor replaced
209 Poles replaced
5,500 Fuses replaced
19,400 Wire splices made
10.5 miles Distance covered if all of the equipment used in the restoration were parked bumper to bumper
285 Line crews working
98 Tree crews working
162,000 Total customer calls answered during the storm
46,000 Calls answered during the busiest day
734,000 Times customers visited PSE.com
40% Percentage of visits made from a mobile device
Photo: Charlie Kirry
1.6 million Times that customers viewed storm photos on Flickr
Photo: Carey Rose
Photo: Gene Torres
Photo: Carey Rose
Clockwise from top: Casey Cochrane, manager of Government and Community Relations, listens to a customer’s concerns
at the Olympia Service Center; employees from PAR Electrical Contractors of California pause to speak to a customer after
restoring power in Covington; a customer service representative in the Bothell Customer Access Center raises a red flag
to requests a supervisor’s assistance; and Richie Fader, customer service representative, helps a customer reporting an
outage. Customer service representatives worked 12-hour shifts during the storms.
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Mission Accomplished
Photo: Brian Morris
Photo: Gene Torres
Top: With repairs complete, a Potelco crew closes a circuit to enable electricity to again flow to customers in an Issaquah
neighborhood. Bottom: A line crew from Galbraith Power in British Columbia expresses the satisfaction of seeing
customers again be warm in their homes.
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Mission Accomplished
Thanks, team!
To PSE employees and contractors:
There are times in one’s life when you feel part of something bigger than yourself, when you know
you’ve made a difference and your heart is filled with gratitude and pride.
This is one of those times.
The snow, ice and wind storms that assaulted Western Washington in late January left 478,000 PSE
customers in the dark. You responded with a round-the-clock restoration effort that didn’t stop until
every single customer again had heat and light.
Throughout your long hours without rest or showers, your meals on the run, and your days without
seeing your families — many of whom were themselves in the dark — you displayed a positive attitude
and remarkable spirit of teamwork. Your commitment to our customers and to PSE makes me proud to
be associated with you.
Thank you and congratulations on a job well done!
Kimberly Harris
President and CEO
All hands on deck (continued from page 3)
Services departments, as well as a few CAC agents,
teamed up to use PSE’s Facebook and Twitter
accounts as communication tools for the first time in a
major storm.
in Gig Harbor primarily for morning and night peaks,
though they sometimes ran all day to help the system
recover from the increased load.”
Meanwhile, in the natural gas world…
The number of customers with ice-storm related
power outages was reduced to 12,000 by
Wednesday, Jan. 25, when fierce winds knocked
out 38,000 additional customers. But by Thursday
morning, most were back on line, and some visiting
crews began their journey home.
On Jan. 22, a water main break on West Lake
Sammamish Parkway in Bellevue caused a landslide
that ruptured water and natural gas lines and led
to the evacuation of four homes. Otherwise, things
were busy, but running fairly smoothly in Gas System
Operations.
“Our system ran as designed from a cold weather
standpoint,” said John Klippert, manager of Gas
System Operations. “Temperatures didn’t drop
much below the high 20s, so we didn’t see as much
demand as we did when temperatures were in the
teens in 2009. We used our liquefied natural gas plant
Wind, then respite
“It’s been hard to see so many customers out of
power for so long, but once again, you’ve shown
your heart and your dedication to taking care of our
customers,” said President and CEO Kimberly Harris.
“I can’t thank our employees and contractors enough
for all of their hard work. You’ve put in extraordinary
effort, and I appreciate it.”
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Appreciation
for our storm fighters
Here are only a few of the hundreds of messages we
received from customers expressing their appreciation for
PSE’s efforts to restore power.
Photo: Brent Olson
A thankful group of students from Enumclaw High School
“Our family wishes to express gratitude to each of
posted this banner on the gate of the Enumclaw service center.
you who have brought and continue to bring warmth,
comfort, and safety to us thousands of PSE customers during this week’s snowstorm. We are especially
sensitive to those on the front line who have been and continue to face the cold, wet, dark, and risks to do
so, and without delay. We are thankful to your understanding families who support you in doing this work
for the rest of us. – Family in Sammamish
Please thank all of your staff, the power workers, the gas workers, the office staff, the telecommunications
staff, for all their hard work to help people restore their power and gas to customers who were without
them during this horrible storm. Your workmanship should be commended! Thank you for being there for
us, when we needed you so much. – Deanna
I want to send a warm thank you to all those workers who are risking life and limb in restoring power to
the Northwest. Not only the workers in the front lines, but those that work in the background. Thanks to
those that came in from other cities and states to help us and all the many volunteers that so unselfishly
helped. – Jody
A huge thanks from us for your fabulous repair service during our weather emergency. Your call receivers
were so kind to me when I called to report a second outage, and even though it involved just one block,
the repair was complete within 24 hours. – Richard and Sharon, Vashon Island
We appreciate your willingness to take time away from your own families to help faceless, nameless
strangers. You are risking your lives dealing with downed wires, unstable trees, and using equipment in
hazardous conditions, all so that we can be returned to enjoy our life’s little luxuries. Thank you all for
your dedication to your profession. – Family in Bonney Lake
My father worked for Northern States Power Co. in Minneapolis. Whenever the lines went down, he was
out leading crews in the dark for long hours, sometimes days at a time. I know how hard it can be on you
and your families. Thank you so much for doing a great job under duress!
– Mei-Lan
We want to thank your support staff and crews for the tremendous effort and sacrifice it took and are
continuing to take to restore power. I know that many of your support staff and crews live in this area and
were just as affected by the storm. Even with that, they were on the job working long hours and risking
their lives in the storm to fix damaged power lines! We count ourselves very lucky that we have such
dedicated people providing us this critical service that is too often taken for granted!
– John, Snoqualmie
4854 02/12
Printed with soy ink on recycled paper.