Rise in Pennsylvania Outages Puts Utilities Under Scrutiny
There has been a substantial increase in Pennsylvania outages since 2015, an alarming trend that has the state’s residents and government officials looking for answers. In 2017, the state had 50 severe outages (defined as 2,500 customers losing power for at least 6 hours), double the number from 2016.
Nuts & Bolts of the Increasing Pennsylvania Outages
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) is very concerned because this trend is indicative of a larger issue – global warming. In fact, 47 of the 50 significant outages in 2017 were the result of severe weather, and there is little indication that Earth’s increasingly violent weather patterns will reverse course.
From the “adding insult to injury” category, one factor that has actually worsened the impact of severe weather in certain areas of the state is an invasive beetle called the emerald ash borer that bores into ash trees, making them much more likely to topple over during an intense storm.
Efforts to Reduce Pennsylvania Outages
There are several steps that the state’s utilities and PUC are taking to try and mitigate this disturbing trend. Here are 3 examples:
- PUC outage monitoring – The PUC now sets targets for the state’s utilities, and any utility that fails to meet these targets is required to develop improvement plans that must be presented to, and approved by, the PUC.
- Technological innovation – Duquesne Light is experimenting with microgrids to help dilute the risk, and most of the state’s utilities are looking at smart technology to improve monitoring and controlling activities.
- Storm hardening tactics – Some utilities are installing new poles, transformers and switches to boost both reliability and resilience.
These and similar tactics should help reduce the frequency and severity of future Pennsylvania outages, which, from an emergency preparedness perspective, is a definite positive.
