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Puget Sound Energy summarizes storm damage and restoration after November "bomb cyclone"
Summary
Puget Sound Energy officials told the Woodinville City Council that the November storm damaged substations and transmission lines across the region, cut power to hundreds of thousands of customers and required large, multi‑state restoration crews; the utility described steps to improve grid resilience while acknowledging outage‑map errors during the event.
Puget Sound Energy emergency-management staff told the Woodinville City Council that the November “bomb cyclone” caused widespread damage across the company's service territory and required an unprecedented mobilization to restore power.
"We had nearly 554,000 customers system wide impacted throughout the event," Mary Hovde, Puget Sound Energy emergency planning manager, said during a presentation. Hovde described more than 2,100 damaged locations, about 52 substations knocked offline, and hundreds of miles of transmission lines affected in mountainous and hard‑to‑reach terrain.
Utility representative Matt Larson likened the electrical grid to a highway system and explained the restoration priorities: first transmission, then substations, then feeders and laterals. "If we started trying to fix things closer to your home without fixing transmission, we'd potentially fix it but nothing would happen," Larson said, noting that crews must often repair higher‑voltage infrastructure before neighborhood outages can be resolved.
PSE said it prestaged crews and opened emergency coordination centers before conditions worsened. Hovde said the company staffed more than 2,700 employees and contractors for response, including roughly 164 line crews and 70 tree crews — several times normal staffing levels — and that some damaged locations required multiple crews and specialized equipment.
Officials acknowledged problems with their outage‑map reporting during the event. "We had a new outage management system...and our outage map was showing things that were not quite the story," Hovde said. The company said it temporarily limited map updates while it reconciled assessment data and urged customers to follow PSE social channels for updates.
Council members pressed PSE on mutual aid and resilience measures. Hovde said crews came from other states and Canada and that the company has programs to harden its system over time: tree‑trimming programs, selective undergrounding, weather‑resistant distribution wire and new sensor‑driven equipment (auto‑reclosers) that can automatically reroute power. Larson described recent meter and automation investments and said those tools help detect outages without relying solely on customer reports.
The presentation included photos and video of storm damage and concluded with an exchange about sourcing replacement transformers, tariffs and supply‑chain risks. Hovde said PSE maintains multiple procurement channels and was able to source required materials during this event.
The council did not take formal action on the briefing. Staff and council thanked Puget Sound Energy staff for the presentation and for continued coordination with the city on outage communications and emergency planning.
