PA Environment Digest

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New PUC Report Indicates Severe Storms Drive Record Number of Power Outage Events Across Pennsylvania

A total of 52 “reportable outage events” disrupted electric service to residents and businesses across Pennsylvania – a record high number of incidents since the Public Utility Commission began collecting reliability data in 1993.

Reportable power outage events, mainly driven by severe thunderstorms during the spring and fall, interrupted service to 1,988,188 customers last year, according to the PUC’s latest Electric Service Reliability Report.

This is different from previous spikes in outage figures that were driven by a small number of high-impact storms, like hurricanes or severe winter storms.

The PUC report details reliability benchmarks and standards for the 2019 calendar year for state’s 11 electric distribution companies (EDCs), including Citizens’ Electric, Duquesne Light, Metropolitan Edison, PECO, Pennsylvania Electric, Pennsylvania Power, Pike County Light & Power, PPL Electric Utilities, UGI Utilities, Wellsboro Electric and West Penn Power.

Trees Issues Drive Service Interruptions

Trees continue to be a key factor for service reliability – especially trees that are located outside the utility right-of-way. Downed trees or falling tree limbs are the number one cause of electric service outages across the state.

EDCs are performing and intensifying necessary vegetation management on their right-of-way corridors.

However, off-right-of-way trees are causing most of the damage and often result in road closures that lead to significant delays in power restoration and negatively impact the reliability and resilience of Pennsylvania’s electric distribution system.

Reliability Slipping

According to the report, overall reliability performance of most EDCs in meeting benchmark performance metrics continued to be poor in 2019. Additionally, the reliability performance and resilience of the overall Pennsylvania electrical distribution system is trending negative – raising additional concerns about future performance.

Recommendations for Reliability Improvement

In response to the issue and trends identified in the PUC’s Electric Service Reliability Report, the Commission has made a series of recommendations, including:

-- Enhanced tree trimming and vegetation management initiatives;

-- Coordination and collaboration with property owners to better address concerns about trees outside utility rights of way; and,

-- Continued accelerated replacement of aging infrastructure.

Additionally, the PUC is encouraging the implementation of a new formalized and sustainable reliability improvement initiative to promote operational excellence.

This was originally developed successfully for high-voltage transmission system operations in areas such as reliability, resilience, security, human performance, equipment performance and asset management, operating experience exchange and superior practices, and continuous performance improvement processes and training.

PUC Benchmarks and Oversight

In addition to monitoring EDCs’ reliability performance, the PUC’s Bureau of Technical Utility Services (TUS) has established inspection and maintenance standards for electric transmission and distribution systems.

TUS continues to work with utilities on improving reliability through corrective action plans which have been instituted for several EDCs, along with Long Term Infrastructure Improvement Plans (LTIIPs) which serve as “road maps” for future system enhancements.

Click Here for the PUC’s latest Electric Service Reliability Report.

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