West Seattle Weather Watch: Power outage explained

| Gatewood | Utilities | West Seattle news | West Seattle weather

By size, within the scope of a big-city system, it was considered a “small” outage – but given that it happened in subfreezing weather, the outage last night in Gatewood/Morgan Junction was huge for hundreds of families. We just talked with Scott Thomsen at Seattle City Light, who explained the cause of the three-hour outage, why it took so long to fix, and why that area seems to be hit by outages frequently: “The area that was affected is served by a 4-kilovolt line – that’s some of the oldest wire in the system – standard (nowadays) is 26 kilovolts.” Scott adds that this is one of some “small pockets” in the city still served by that wire, and what went wrong is that it’s not made to handle the kind of demand placed on it when the temperature went way down and the heat went way up. It took crews a while to figure out the problem: “Ultimately they discovered the relays set up to deliver energy into that area were not set up to handle the increased load demand … as people were keeping their heat on. … So it kept cutting out, and tripping the breaker, and finally went out. They wound up feeding the electricity into that area in a different route to keep it from tripping the breaker, and they will keep that in place for as long as (the cold weather continues).” He says upgrading lines like that is part of the infrastructure investment called for in City Light’s five-year plan, but it’s not cheap – it would require new cable and new transformers – so if you live in that area and are tired of repeated outages, you might want to let the City Council know, since they ultimately hold the purse strings.

Glenda December 15, 2008 (1:30 pm)

My parents and grandmother live in that area, while I’m a few blocks North of the Alaska Junction. I have been amazed the last three years or so, even in the worst conditions we lost power for less than two hours, whereas my parents and grandmother have lost power repeatedly, for sometimes days/weeks at a time, atleast two – three times each year. My parents at least have a fire place, but my poor 90+ year old grandmother is stuck on the third floor of an apartment without a working elevator with no heat, etc. It’s a really bad situation that needs to be fixed sooner rather than later, and seeing the direct comparison of their service and my service makes that all the more apparent.

Michael December 15, 2008 (2:32 pm)

WSB: Loosing the pitbulls again! :)

Glenda: It’s awesome your parents and grandmother live so close together, so they can pool their resources at times like that.

Evan December 15, 2008 (2:59 pm)

Thanks, WSB, this is really helpful.

Pokey December 15, 2008 (3:13 pm)

I completely agree with Glenda. One would think that with all the commercial enterprises and new apartments and condos in and around Cal-Mor, that someone would figure out this entire area needs upgrading. Two years ago during the big storms, City Light workers were at the Morgan triangle sub-station night after night replacing hardware in addition to new line. I was told by several of them that City Light has cut way back on ‘preventive maintenance’ requiring those of us out of power often, to wait for them to figure out the problems like last night.
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That being said, the line crews do a tremendous job especially when the weather is nasty cold like last night. Kudos to them, not so much to City Light Adm. Gotta go write a letter to the council. Thanks WSB for the usual fine job of investigative reporting.

KSJ December 15, 2008 (3:14 pm)

I was down at the Beveridge Place Pub last night when it was flickering and then finally went out. They are so used to it, all the patrons just kept talking and drinking like nothing was going on, and the bartenders just lit more candles and kept going.

Evan December 15, 2008 (3:55 pm)

It looks like the right person to contact is Bruce Harrell, who chairs the Energy & Technology Committee. I just sent an email and would strongly encourage everybody else to do the same.

fiz December 15, 2008 (7:43 pm)

The Kenney is affected by these outages. The skilled nursing center was dark during last night – not a pleasant experience for the residents or the staff. The old and frail are particulary prone to panic when something like this happens – as it has for three consecutive winters. Generators can provide minimal support but are not the longterm fix.

Solution: City Light = get on the stick and get this resolved. Community = help the Kenney replace this outdated and tired 1950’s building.

fiz December 15, 2008 (8:05 pm)

You’re right, Evan. Write to him at

bruce.harrell@seattle.gov.

freezingcold December 15, 2008 (8:50 pm)

Thanks for the contact email fiz!

After the storm in 12/06 cut power for 3 days in Gatewood we have a generator now. After reading this I am glad we do! It’s incredible to think its the oldest type of line they have — as there are so many other neighborhoods in Seattle that are older than this one.

freezingcold December 15, 2008 (9:02 pm)

I sent him an email hopefully others will too!

miws December 16, 2008 (5:42 pm)

I too was frustrated with “yet another” outage.

I live across from the Shell gas station/C&F convenience store on California, and have been here 8.5 plus years. In all that time, I recall maybe one or two outages that lasted an hour or more, up until the big storm from a couple of years ago.

I feel a bit guilty complaining, as I know many others are worse off in this cold weather, and as Pokey mentioned, the job the line crews do. They work in a very dangerous profession, in very dangerous conditions.

Sure, they choose to do the job, and have the knowledge. skills, and equipment to do so safely, but unfortunate circumstances can occur.

All that being said, it was annoying to see that once again, our little pocket was out, yet looking east up along the hill, that power was on for those at around 40th or 39th on east, and for the strip mall to the north, on Fauntleroy, that Blockbuster is in.

I was fortunate in that my apt manager and another neighbor were going around checking on everybody, and gave me a couple of emergency candles and matches, literally shoving them in my hand when I politely declined, since I wanted to just sit around in the semi-dark, (enough moonlight and it’s reflection on the snow to give me enough light to not trip over anything!) and feel sorry for myself. ;)

I also had most of dinner ready, and was heating up the last thing (frozen veggies) in the microwave, when the power went out for good after several of those “tripped breaker” outages, lasting maybe 3-5 seconds each, spanning a couple of hours.

I’m glad to have the info from CL (thanks WSB!), but do agree with others that it seems that the higher ups at CL should have had this resolved by now, or at least seriously working on it.

Mike