Seattle City Light details storm response, cites aging poles and high undergrounding costs after 'bomb cyclone' outages

Seattle City Light leaders updated the Lake Forest Park City Council on Jan. 9 about the utility’s response to the recent "bomb cyclone" that left portions of the community without power for several days and described next steps on infrastructure investment and communications.

The utility’s general manager, Dawn Lindell, told the council the storm produced “extreme weather conditions that caused extensive damage to our infrastructure,” and that crews prioritized critical facilities and large blocks of customers while working through access and downed-tree issues. "At the peak, which was roughly 11 p.m. on [Dec. 19], we were at a 114,000 outages," said Mike Haines, Seattle City Light’s chief operating officer.

The presentation focused on the causes of extended outages in Lake Forest Park and the region and on the utility’s asset condition. Andy Strong, the utility’s environmental engineering and project delivery officer, said the feeders serving Lake Forest Park are relatively new and that the primary vulnerability is wooden poles: "Of [City Light's] 92,000 wooden utility poles, about 1,850 serve this region," Strong said, and he added the utility has 18 poles in the worst condition category (P1) in the area and another 172 that need replacement within three to five years.

Why it matters

City Light officials said most unscheduled outages in the region…