PSE Safety and Reliability Initiatives
At Puget Sound Energy, we think prevention is the best medicine for ensuring safe, reliable electric service. That's why we regularly inspect our electric system to identify and correct deficiencies before they cause an outage or power-quality problem. Our maintenance programs involve testing equipment on a regular schedule and identifying needed upgrades.
One year-round PSE reliability effort is our nationally recognized TreeWatch program, which selects and removes trees in danger of falling into power lines. Since the start of the program in the late 1990s, we've reduced the number of tree-caused power outages by 22 percent. Another reliability effort is our installation of "tree wire," a tough, thick-coated power line capable of withstanding contact with tree branches that would otherwise cause an outage. Tree wire has helped reduce related power outages on our system by 70 percent. Also, PSE's installation of "animal guards" around electrical equipment – about 1,600 were installed in 2004 – has reduced animal-related outages by 35 percent.
For an underground power-distribution system, age and moisture make buried cable vulnerable to failures and prolonged outages. Since 1989, PSE has managed a cable-remediation program that can extend the life of underground power cable for 20 years through injections of silicone material that restores the cable's insulating properties. Over the past three years, PSE's cable remediation has prevented 1,000 outages annually. PSE also tests hundreds of cable sections annually and, based on their vintage and failure rate, replaces a significant portion.