Time to go underground? PSE considers power outage risk when moving lines underground
Feb 26, 2025, 5:20 AM
Crew work to restore power on 1st Ave S. in Normandy Park during the late feburary wind storm. (Photo courtesy of PSE's Flickr)
(Photo courtesy of PSE's Flickr)
Tens of thousands of people in East King County woke up without power Tuesday morning after a strong windstorm brought gusts upwards of 55 miles per hour to the area.
Businesses, homes, and even Medina City Hall went without power for hours. Several pockets with dozens of customers who did not have power remained Tuesday evening.
“We had a lot of smaller type trees and branches that did impact power lines, creating some problems. Some trees did fall as well creating issues for our crews,” Andrew Padula, a spokesperson for Puget Sound Energy, said.
KIRO 7 crews spotted several large, downed trees throughout East King County Tuesday, even branches hanging from power lines.
Padula said crews work year-round to clear vegetation from trees and hang more robust tree lines to try and prevent outages. There are sometimes areas he says need more attention.
“We are working on some of our reliability projects,” Padula said. “(Part of) that is determining what areas may be more susceptible to power outages.”
In those areas, there are more threats than they can reasonably keep up with through vegetation management. In those areas, power lines may be undergrounded. It’s common for new developments and for agencies that need reliable power.
“Sometimes there are government agencies that try and do a project that they ask us for underground lines,” Padula said. “In some cases, there are developers or groups of customers that are willing to foot the bill to put those lines underground.”
Undergrounding can be an expensive undertaking if it’s to relocate existing lines. It’s also not foolproof. Homes are powered by powerlines which are fed by distribution lines. Distribution lines are fed from substations, connected by transmission lines that cross the Cascades. A tree falling on any of those lines along the way would cause power to go out, no matter if a home or neighborhood’s lines are below ground. Transmission lines are some of the most arduous to repair, often in remote, mountainous territory.
“[Evaluation] is a year-round process that we do. Granted, when we have winds that we did last night, or back in the bomb cyclone in November, some of those are more significant creating more problems for us. Obviously, we will work around the clock to get everyone’s power back on.
