Community Corner
Why Don't I Have Power, But My Neighbor Does? PSE Explains
Puget Sound Energy posted an explanation on its Facebook page for why some residents might find that they lack power when their neighbor's lights are on.
If you don't have power, but your neighbors do,Puget Sound Energy explained in a status on its Facebook page why you still might not have power:
If you do not have power but your neighbors do, it could mean one of three things:
1) You are served by a different distribution line than your neighbor. Your neighbor is served by a different distribution line (or circuit) that has power, while the distribution circuit serving your home has sustained an outage.
Find out what's happening in Redmondwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
2) The overhead service to your home has been damaged. We are asking that customers who have overhead distribution lines serving their homes make sure there is no damage to the weatherhead – the roof-mounted pole-like structure where the electrical service enters their home – that belongs to you. If you do discover damage to your weatherhead, PSE cannot legally restore power until the damage has been repaired by a licensed electrician. Once those repairs have been completed call 1-888-225-5773 and we will dispatch a service crew to make permanent connections and restore power.
3) The transformer serving your home may be out due to cold load pickup which occurs after crews have made necessary repairs and restored power to our customers. When the power is restored, electrical appliances and heaters in the homes also start up. When this occurs all at once, service lines and transformers serving individual houses can become overloaded and an additional – sometimes extended outage – can occur. We ask that customers without power turn off lights, appliances and electronic devices, leaving one light on so they know when power has returned. This is to ensure electrical lines serving their neighborhood doesn’t become overloaded and blow a fuse, causing a second outage.
Find out what's happening in Redmondwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
We also recommend re-reporting your outage by calling PSE at 1-888-225-5773 or by sending an email to customercare@pse.com with name, address and account number, if accessible. The increased winds we experience this weekend caused some new outages.
According to the utility, about 200 crews worked over the weekend and 59,000 customers had power restored on Sunday.
While most power has been restored to Bellevue, some in the Factoria area of Bellevue may not have power restored until Monday night and some in the Issaquah area might not have power restored until Wednesday evening.
-- Information from Puget Sound Energy
