The 52 power outages reported across Pennsylvania in 2019 marked a record high since the state Public Utility Commission began collecting reliability data 27 years ago, the agency reported.
The “reportable outage events,” mainly caused by severe thunderstorms that downed trees, interrupted service to about 2 million customers statewide, according to the PUC’s latest Electric Service Reliability Report.
One thing the 111-page study makes clear is that trees continue to be the key factor in declining service reliability, particularly trees that are located outside utility rights-of-way, said Nils Hagen-Frederiksen, PUC press secretary.
Downed trees or limbs are the top cause of electric service outages across the state, he said. Tree damage during major weather events caused about 1 billion customer minutes of service interruptions last year.
“As noted in the report, utilities are stepping up vegetation management to address trees in their rights-of-way and the commission continues to press for greater collaboration and coordination between utilities and private property owners regarding off-rights-of-way trees — as well as infrastructure improvements to help harden key systems to make them less vulnerable,” Hagen-Frederiksen said.
The PUC’s David Hixson added that while electric companies are intensifying necessary vegetation management on their right-of-way corridors, it is other trees causing most of the damage.
Hixson, deputy press secretary, noted those problems often result in road closures that lead to significant delays in power restoration and negatively impact the reliability and resilience of the state’s electric distribution system.
With the report showing the resilience of the overall electrical distribution system continuing to trend negative and increased concerns about future performance, Hixson said the commission has taken steps.
The report notes the commission made a series of recommendations, including enhanced tree trimming and vegetation management initiatives by electric companies, coordination and collaboration between electric utilities and property owners to better address concerns about trees outside utility rights-of-way and continued accelerated replacement of aging infrastructure.
Hixson said the commission recommends potential legislative relief that will grant utility companies the authority to remove or trim danger trees that are off their existing right-of-way. Such relief could include granting utilities the ability to trim, top-off or remove trees that can potentially fall onto power conductors.
According to data supplied in the report, the worst power outage last year occurred during a windstorm on Feb. 24 that caused 663,000 service interruptions for electric utility customers in seven of the state’s 11 electric distribution companies.
Duquesne Light and West Penn Power, which provide service in Western Pennsylvania, were among the hardest hit. The utilities logged their highest service outages with 140,183 and 177,232 interruptions, respectively, in that February 2019 storm, according to the PUC report.
Locally, the second highest number of outages occurred Oct. 31, when a thunderstorm rumbled through the region causing interruptions to 27,274 West Penn customers and 15,087 Duquesne Light customers in the region.
More information is on the PUC’s website at www.puc.pa.gov.
