How Seattle City Light prepares for stormy weather

SEATTLE - Before a single tree branch hits a power line, Seattle City Light (SCL) is already watching the weather radar and setting its storm response plan in motion.

With heavy rain and gusty winds moving into the region this weekend, crews at the utility’s South Service Center are operating 24/7, ready to pivot at a moment’s notice to restore outages across the city.

Where the response begins

Local perspective:

When an outage call comes in, the restoration process starts long before a bucket truck reaches a Seattle neighborhood. It begins inside the SCL South Service Center warehouse.

Warehouse Supervisor Theresa Provido and her team manage an inventory of hundreds of essential parts, including insulator brackets, thousands of transformers, and miles of overhead and underground wire. Provido said their goal is simple: ensure field crews can grab what they need and get on the road immediately.

"A lot of people don’t see the background of what happens in operations," Provido said. "You may see trucks out there, which they do an incredible job of being out there in all weather conditions. But in the background, for my crew, we provide the material that they need to restore power within the city."

The facility houses massive equipment built for citywide scale, including 8,000-pound spools of insulated underground wire designed to feed power to downtown Seattle and its high-rises.

How power gets restored

Dig deeper:

Once the System Control Center logs an outage and determines its priority level, a two-person Line Service crew is dispatched first to assess the scene.

If a transformer fuse is blown or damage requires heavier equipment, that initial crew calls a duty supervisor, like Field Operations Supervisor Jonathan McCamey, to send in backup.

According to McCamey, restoring power happens in two distinct phases:

• The Feeder System: Heavy wind and rain often send branches crashing onto high-voltage feeder wires. Without working feeders, power cannot reach local neighborhoods. Crews patrol these lines first to clear debris, replace crossarms, or set new poles.
• The Distribution System: Once the main feeders are back online, crews patrol and repair the distribution lines and service wires that carry electricity directly into homes and businesses.

Throughout every repair, McCamey emphasized that safety dictates the pace of the work.

"When we’re out working, we want to be safe. We want to make the public safe," McCamey said. "So, we have to work in a particular manner in order to keep our crews safe. We don’t want to put them in harm's way and not be able to complete the mission."

After the lights come back on

What's next:

Even after power is restored, the operation continues back at the service center. Provido said returning crews drop off damaged or salvaged gear at the warehouse, where staff sort materials by metal type, including brass, aluminum, steel, and copper to determine what can be reused, refurbished, or recycled.

With wet weather in the weekend forecast, Seattle City Light has already scheduled standby crews onsite through the weekend, ready to roll the second a call for service comes in.

To report a power outage or view live restoration updates, visit seattle.gov/city-light.

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