Pierce County outage leaves nearly 35,000 without power - KOMO News

Pierce County outage leaves nearly 35,000 without power | KOMO

PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — More than 34,000 people were without power in the peninsula area of Pierce County and parts of Tacoma on Wednesday.

According to the Peninsula Light Company(PLC), 34,775 customers were dealing with power outages as of 12:27 p.m. As of 12:39 p.m., that number shrunk to 16,220, and by 12:53 p.m., only 14 customers did not have power. Seven people were without power at 2:35 p.m.

Tacoma Public Utilities (TPU) posted an update on Facebook at 2:04 p.m. saying the outage occurred around 11 a.m. as "crews were performing required testing of our transmission system protecting the line between Cushman Power Plants and NE Tacoma. The testing resulted in a unexpected operation, causing equipment outside of the scope of the test to de-energize portions of our network."

TPU said a "thorough investigation" will be launched to "understand the root causes of this large power outage."

"We regret that so many Tacoma Power and Peninsula Light customers were impacted by this unexpected outage," TPU continued. "We are thankful for our crews and system operators effectively restoring our customers within about 40 minutes of the start of the outage."

PLC posted on X at 12:34 p.m. that "Vaughn, Minter, Gig Harbor, Narrows, Purdy, Lodholm are back online." Lakebay is coming next, followed by Artondale, PLC added.

TPU posted on X at 11:53 a.m. that it's working to quickly restore power to all impacted customers. TPU said customers without power can report it by calling calling 253-502-8602.

The power outage in northern Tacoma, near Ruston Point, lasted from about 11 a.m. until noon, according to the TPU.

PLC posted the following on X at 11:56 a.m.:

"Dispatch slowly restoring the system in sections. Your continued patience is appreciated as staff remedy this situation!"

On Nov. 2, thousands across the Puget Sound region lost power due to high winds. Gusts were as high as 38 mph in Seattle that day. The outage did not heavily affect Pierce County.