Skip to main content

March Windstorm Event

We understand how difficult it is to be without power, and we appreciate your patience. Crews continued to make steady progress overnight. Small pockets of customers remain without power in King County, Greenwater, and Skykomish. The plan for today is to continue to assess damage in difficult access areas and restore power as quickly and safely as possible.

Below are updates and current estimated restoration times for hard-hit areas:

  • In Skykomish, crews continue to work on the electric system that feeds the town from the west. An additional helicopter patrol is scheduled for later in the morning. We expect to have power restored to our Skykomish customers by today, March 15 at 8 p.m.
  • In King County, crews continue to repair damage to the system throughout the morning. We still expect most customers will have their power restored by today, March 15 at 8 p.m.
  • In Greenwater, Highway 410 remains closed and the combination of deep snow and many fallen trees is preventing crews and equipment from accessing damaged electric equipment. Based on current conditions, restoration efforts could go into Monday. Estimated times of restoration will be updated in the PSE outage map as we are able to reassess for any improvement to travel and access during today's early daylight.

Estimated restoration times by region are available at pse.com/alerts. As crews are assigned to a repair job, the specific time for that outage will be added to the outage map.

Read more

   
alert 

Safety first. Never touch or go within 35 feet of downed power lines because they might be energized. Call PSE at 1-888-225-5773 or 911 to report problems.

Report and track power outages online

PSE launches demand response pilot program on Bainbridge Island
Peak Energy Rewards is designed to help meet the community’s energy needs by leveraging smart thermostats and other energy efficiency measures

Bellevue, Washington (11/14/2022) Puget Sound Energy (PSE) has launched Peak Energy Rewards on Bainbridge Island. This demand response pilot program uses smart technology to help meet the community’s electric capacity needs and is designed to reduce the need for additional new infrastructure.

Demand response is a strategy to decrease demand on an energy grid during peak usage times. It involves modifying the way customers use energy – particularly when they use it, and is a way for PSE and our customers to increase efficiency and potentially reduce our collective carbon footprint. Those who sign up for Peak Energy Rewards give PSE limited, voluntary access to their thermostat to help smooth out energy demand by remotely adjusting the temperature setting in participants’ homes. Customers will always have full control of their thermostat and can change the temperature whenever they want.

“We are excited to launch this new program as part of our unique hybrid solution on Bainbridge Island to combine new technologies and grid infrastructure to improve reliability and capacity,” said Gilbert Archuleta, director of customer energy management at PSE. “This ensures safe, dependable power for families and businesses for years to come while we work together to create a cleaner energy future.”



How Peak Energy Rewards works:

To smooth out the demand for energy during peak usage periods, PSE will increase the temperature in a participant’s home ahead of a cold weather event and then lower the thermostat setting for a few hours once cold weather hits. These Peak Energy Rewards demand response events will only occur between the hours of 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. from November to March, for a maximum of 4 hours per event. Events will not occur during weekends or holidays. Bainbridge Island customers who participate likely won’t notice a difference in comfort, and will be helping to create a more energy-efficient system in their community. Plus, participants can always opt out before or during a Peak Energy Rewards demand response event by manually adjusting their thermostat.

As a reward for joining, participants receive an annual incentive. Customers who already have a smart thermostat from Nest, ecobee or Mysa can join by enrolling their current device in Peak Energy Rewards demand response events.

Peak Energy Rewards also aligns with PSE’s aspirational goal of reducing carbon emissions to net zero and helping other sectors decarbonize. Demand response has the potential to reduce overall energy use, and PSE’s goal is to partner with customers and industries to identify programs and products that help reduce emissions.

PSE is already an energy efficiency national leader, saving 67 billion electric kWh and 600 million natural gas therms through energy efficiency programs since the inception of our programs that help our customers save energy. This is the equivalent of eliminating the typical residential customer electric usage for one year for roughly 6.2 million homes and eliminating the typical residential customer natural gas usage for one year for roughly 800,000 homes.

To learn more or enroll your device visit pse.com/peakenergyrewards, or call 1-833-203-1947.


Media Contact:

Andrew Padula, 1-888-831-7250, psenewsroom@pse.com

Puget Sound Energy is proud to serve our neighbors and communities in 10 Washington counties.
We’re the state’s largest utility, supporting approximately 1.2 million electric customers and 900,000 natural gas customers.
We aspire to be a beyond net zero carbon energy company by 2045.
For more about us and what we do, visit pse.com. Also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.