Duquesne Light, West Penn Power officials grilled at hearing over days-long power outages

Officials from Duquesne Light and West Penn Power said their crews, as well as those called in from other states, did the best they could to restore power to hundreds of thousands of customers impacted by catastrophic storms late last month.

Those same officials at a House Majority Policy Committee hearing Wednesday night in O’Hara testified there was room for improvement in storm response.

Among the issues to be addressed are localizing communication, improving estimated restoration times and working with local public works departments on clearing roads.

Kristy Stone, vice president and chief customer officer of Duquesne Light, said the company is thoroughly evaluating its response to the storm and will create a public report.

She called it a “catastrophic storm” that resulted in the largest restoration effort in the company’s 100-year history.

Abe Amawi, Greensburg area director of operations for West Penn Power, said they also are looking into its response and plan to make adjustments.

The hearing, held at the Lauri Ann West Community Center, was hosted by state Rep. Mandy Steele, D-Fox Chapel.

“I called for this hearing because, as we all know, we got smashed by the April 29 storm and endured a prolonged period without power,” Steele said. “I wanted to connect the people that I represent with information directly from the source about what exactly happened in the aftermath of the storm.”

Steele shared how her family was without power for seven days, and that there was a pregnant woman in Fox Chapel who had to climb over power lines and debris to get to her physician’s car to go to a hospital because her road was blocked.

“Some of the homes I visited, some of the doors I knocked, the people were not OK a few days in,” Steele said. “I’ve heard so much confusion and anger, and sometimes hopelessness about the situation.”

Mentioned several times at the hearing were the unreliable estimated restoration times.

Company officials said they plan to make communication more localized so people get information tailored to their area instead of overall operations.

They also said they would be open to partnering with community public works departments and other agencies.

The meeting took place Wednesday while tornado watches were in effect in parts of the area.

State Rep. Abigail Salisbury, D-Swissvale, talked about emergency preparedness and how she represents some of the poorest areas in Allegheny County, with the median household income of less than $30,000.

She also cited people with medical needs and on food assistance who were greatly impacted by not having power.

“Not everyone is starting from the same starting line when it comes to emergency preparedness,” Salisbury said.

State Rep. Joe McAndrew, D-Penn Hills, said there were multiple instances of tree removal companies waiting for hours and at times leaving sites due to lack of utility crews responding to the same area.

Duquesne Light Vice President of Operations John Hilderbrand said he wanted to “better understand” those situations and acknowledged that could be an area for improvement.

Steele said she introduced legislation to do a cost analysis of putting all power lines underground.

Allegheny County Democrats also proposed legislation about price gouging after emergencies.

What was done

Amawi said they had 430,000 customers without power, which is about 20% of the customer base.

They pulled resources from 18 states to help restore power.

West Penn replaced 626 poles, 387 transformers and miles of lines.

Power was restored to about 95% of customers within 92 hours, and the last customer’s power was restored the morning of May 6.

Duquesne Light had 325,000 without power at its peak.

Hilderbrand said they tripled the number of crews normally to restore power. They pulled resources from Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and New York as well as eastern Pennsylvania and Philadelphia.

Duquesne Light Director of Communications and Brand Matt Neistein said 99% of customers had power restored by May 7.

Duquesne Light replaced about 80 miles of downed wires as well as more than 300 damaged transformers and 230 poles.

Neistein said some customers may still be without power due to damage to their homes or businesses, and the company has made contact with those people.