PITTSBURGH — More than half a million people lost power when storms hit our region last spring. And now, the state is done analyzing how electric companies prepared and responded to the storm.
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In its report, Pennsylvania’s Public Utility Commission found that the widespread outages stressed Duquesne Light Company in multiple ways.
For example, it took the utility company 10 days to restore power to all its customers, which PUC says is the same amount of time it took electric companies to restore service after Hurricane Sandy.
PHOTOS: Severe storms leave behind significant damage throughout Pittsburgh region
PUC also found that DLC didn’t have a sufficient number of linemen, struggled with road closures and didn’t answer nearly 10% of customer calls about outages.
The report also said DLC prematurely sent out estimated restoration times and didn’t deliver.
In all, the 170-page report outlined 25 findings and 10 recommendations.
Some of the recommendations for DLC include scaling up its storm response workforce, reviewing its storm response process, reviewing call center performance and improving its storm outage prediction models.
Back in September, DLC officials announced changes based on their own review of the company’s storm response. Some of those changes included:
- Additional employee training
- Clearer communication about restoration times
- Handling more customer calls
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In a statement, DLC highlights that PUC’s report aligns with many of its own findings.
“These improvements will directly enhance reliability and customer experience during major storms, and include upgrading technology and grid infrastructure, forecasting tools and customer communications; and investing in workforce training and readiness,” the statement says in part.
DLC says it remains committed to improving service for customers, particularly during severe weather.
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