PUD outage totals down in 2013

Grays Harbor PUD had a decrease in outages for 2013, according to a report presented to the PUD commissioners on Tuesday.

“This is great news for the district and our customers,” said PUD Board President Russ Skolrood. “Having a reliable system is of the utmost importance and there are still improvements that can be made, but I am proud of the advances made by our maintenance crews in 2013.”

Last year saw PUD crews respond to 563 total outages, which is 11% lower than the five-year average and well below the 2012 total of 731. Those outages left customers without power for over 154,000 hours – 14% below the average. September was the busiest month for PUD crews with 101 outages. Scheduled outages had the biggest impact on customers.

Weather related issues made up a large portion of the 2013 totals, with 49 outages due to fallen trees, 35 to lightning strikes, 24 attributed to storms and 19 to wind.

“There are some power outages we can work to avoid through tree trimming and vegetation management,” said Skolrood. “Moving forward we will review these causes to ensure that we are improving data for tree trimming and asset management to build on system reliability.”

Montesano power station suffered the highest number of outages with 68. Ocean Shores suffered 67, an Elma station had 64 outages and the Cedarville station reported 59.