PSE Outages Knock Out Power For Thousands Monday (2024)

Crime & Safety

As the heat wave bore down, Puget Sound Energy crews rushed to resolve hundreds of outages across Western Washington.

Posted Mon, Jun 28, 2021 at 6:21 pm PT|Updated Mon, Jun 28, 2021 at 6:26 pm PT

The first reports of widespread outages came at midday. By 3 p.m., PSE was responding to more than 125 outages, which combined left over 13,000 customers without power. At that point, the largest single outage, in Auburn, was putting more than 3,700 homes in the dark.

While PSE crews rushed to address the myriad outages, more continued to pop up. By 6 p.m., PSE was juggling nearly 180 outages, again impacting roughly 13,000 customers. One in Issaquah had since outpaced the Auburn outage, impacting just shy of 8,000 homes.

Though many Western Washingtonians are using extra power to crank up the air conditioning, PSE says the outages are not due to any power shortages within its system. Instead, the agency claims the bulk of the outages have been caused by heat-related equipment failures. Over the weekend, PSE crews were called to seven times the regular volume of work orders as Western Washington weathered temperatures 30 to 40 degrees above normal.

Though Puget Sound Energy says it can generate or secure enough power to meet the demand, the agency is still asking customers to conserve power where possible.

"For their own benefit of cost savings and comfort as well as to help reduce stress on the system during these unprecedented conditions, we do hope customers will work with us to conserve energy," said PSE Spokesperson Andrew Padula. "It will take a collective effort to get us through a historic day."

PSE suggests consumers conserve power by unplugging electronics that are not in use, or consider grilling outside instead of using an oven that could heat up your home. The Snohomish County PUD has issued a similar request to its customers, particularly during energy demand peaks between noon and 10 p.m.

Fortunately, the problems are likely to die down as the temperature does: The excessive heat warning has been extended through Tuesday evening, but temperatures are expected to cool back into the mid-80s by Wednesday. Until then, residents should stay out of the sun, keep the AC running — and maybe unplug the toaster if you're feeling toasty enough already.

Related: Heat Warning Extended; Record PNW Temperatures Should Peak Monday