Puget Sound Energy, the state’s largest utility, is warning customers it could turn off power in some communities to prevent its power lines from sparking wildfires.
The utility, which provides electricity to over 1.2 million customers in 10 counties, has identified the riskiest areas for wildfire in its broad service area.
The preventive blackouts could happen anywhere if conditions are dangerous but would be a “tool of last resort,” PSE spokesperson Christina Donegan said.
The move by PSE is yet another sign of how the increased threat of wildfire is remaking life for Washingtonians.
The blackouts could pose the greatest harm to vulnerable residents who rely on essential electronic medical equipment — such as dialysis machines, ventilators and infant apnea monitors. PSE says it is educating customers about the new strategy and is rolling out an alert and warning system.
The shut-off plan also illustrates how utilities across the Western U.S. are considering more disruptive strategies, like power outages, to reduce risks to communities — as well as legal liability — as climate warming and drought worsen, experts say.
Catastrophic and fatal wildfires ignited by utility-owned lines in recent years have pressured utilities to make changes. The 2018 Camp fire that killed 85 people in California contributed to the bankruptcy of utility Pacific Gas & Electric and has served as a cautionary tale.
In Washington, power line fires have destroyed towns and homes. During the Labor Day fires of 2020, five homes were destroyed in Pierce County after a tree fell onto a PSE power line, and Malden in Eastern Washington was razed by a blaze sparked by an Avista-owned power line.
Less than 5% of PSE’s overhead lines are in an area with a high threat of fire, PSE director of electric operations Ryan Murphy said in an interview.
In recent years, PSE has analyzed wildfire risk along its overhead lines and developed a real-time model that accounts for weather conditions like wind and humidity where there are fuels, like dry vegetation, and PSE’s infrastructure, he said.
Communities at highest risk for shut-offs include Greenwater, Pierce County; Skykomish; Concrete, Skagit County; rural areas east of Snoqualmie Pass like Cle Elum and Kittitas; and parts of west Thurston County and Vashon Island, which have pockets of dense vegetation. The utility considers June 1 the start of wildfire season and will monitor wildfire risk year-round.
PSE intends to give customers two days of notice before cutting power, beginning with shut-off “watch” notifications, followed by “warning” and “imminent” notifications.
PSE is asking customers to ensure their contact information is updated in their account. PSE is also asking customers with essential medical equipment at home to make sure they have “life support status” on their account.
“We’re going to try to give people as much notice as possible that we’re watching your area closely to see how the weather situation evolves here,” Michelle Vargo, PSE senior vice president of energy operations, said in an interview.
The utility is also implementing what it calls “enhanced power line settings” for high-risk areas, which can lead to unexpected blackouts with no warning. These settings make power lines more sensitive to faults or short circuits that can create sparks.
During the rainy storm season, power lines often have settings that ensure lines stay electrified in case a branch falls on the lines, Vargo said. During high wildfire risk, the settings in wildfire-prone areas will be made more sensitive to potential shorts, which means lines may be turned off more frequently.
After a shut-off, Murphy said the entire line must be visually inspected to ensure it is clear of branches or any other hazards.
PSE’s general goal after an outage is to have a ground crew out within 55 minutes, but Vargo acknowledged waits can be longer during events like winter storms when there are many outages at once.
For planned shut-offs, the outage will only end after dangerous weather conditions like wind have abated, Murphy said, warning that the process to clear and repair lines after a “small to medium” event could take “multiple days.”
PSE has also said it will shut off power at the request of local emergency officials when there is a nearby active fire, like during the 2022 Bolt Creek fire.
PacifiCorp, which operates in the Yakima Valley, Oregon and California, also has plans to potentially shut off power. In its 2023 wildfire planning documents, Spokane-based Avista said it plans to study preventive shut-offs in more depth.
The consequences of turning off power
Preventive power shut-offs — especially during the hottest days of the year — can hurt medically vulnerable groups, older adults and low-income people, who often do not have a backup power source, said Matt Auer, dean of the University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs. People rely on electricity to keep medications cold, food from going bad and to power air conditioning and breathing devices, he said.
In areas of high fire risk, Vargo said PSE is working with local emergency responders and identifying critical care facilities. The utility has also held open houses and community events to inform residents and local officials of power shut-offs since 2022.
“We all only know those customers who self-identify and go through the process. I think we’re all concerned about the customer we don’t know about,” Vargo said.
For years, PSE had said preventive power shut-offs were unlikely to be necessary for its service area and declined to plan for them. In July 2021, PSE wrote to the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission that the utility did not have “the data and information, nor the necessary tools” to implement preventive shut-offs and the lack of tools was “not likely to be addressed for several years or longer.”
Murphy said part of what has led the utility to change course is improving its analysis and understanding of wildfire risk.
“We had some pretty big advancements in our risk modeling over the last 2 ½ years especially,” Murphy said.
Since 2021, the UTC has also required electric utilities to create wildfire plans, and a bill passed in 2023 has further formalized the process.
According to PSE’s most recent wildfire mitigation and response plan, the number of wildfires and acres burned near PSE infrastructure has grown, as the number of large wildfires and the amount of land burned has also grown in general in Washington.
Between 2000 and 2010, there were only four fires within 2 miles of PSE infrastructure, totaling around 650 acres. Since 2011, the number of fires in that range has grown to 19, with over 360,000 acres burned.
Utilities in California specifically have drawn controversy over plans to bury miles of overhead lines, which eliminates fire risk but costs $3 million per mile and has driven up electricity rates, said Meredith Fowlie, University of California, Berkeley, economics professor.
PSE plans to bury some lines near Cle Elum, according to its wildfire plans.
Why utilities are considering blackouts
While it’s no surprise blackouts are unpopular, utilities across the United States are likely to treat shut-offs as one of many tools to address wildfire as drought, dry vegetation and hotter temperatures are only forecast to continue, Auer said.
Blackouts — specifically because of wildfire risk — have been used by California utilities over the past decade, but other utilities, including in Texas and Louisiana, are discussing the possibility, he said. Utilities can also invest in upgrading aging power lines and trimming trees, Auer said.
Utilities are trying to avoid the kind of scrutiny and legal liabilities that Pacific Gas & Electric and the Hawaiian Electric have faced after the 2018 Camp fire and deadly Lahaina fire last year, respectively, he said.
Historically, utilities have been able to equally prioritize safety, keeping rates affordable and the flow of electricity on, Fowlie said. However, with wildfire risk only increasing, utilities are forced to make trade-offs.
“If we want the affordability and the safety that we’ve had in the past, the reliability has got to give,” she said.
Materials from The Seattle Times archive was used in this report.
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