City Council
Duquesne Light’s infrastructure took a hard hit during April’s storm.
Some city residents went nine days without power after the April 29 storm. Five months later, a Duquesne Light official told council the storm did more damage than the company usually sees in a year. The company will invest $2.7 billion over five years, he added. Still, a state utility commission official said burying most city power lines won't be feasible.
Written by Amy Whipple
Five months after a storm left some city residents without power for nine days, city council members sat down with representatives of Duquesne Light and the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission to talk about the April 29 storm and the company’s response.
Council members had already met with Deputy Mayor Jake Pawlak in May and with both city and county officials in July to discuss both the response and the need for resiliency plans as the city faces more frequent and increasingly severe storms due to climate change.
Ben Kane, operations center director for Duquesne Light, said the April 29 storm caused more damage than the company typically sees in a year. The company replaced more than 500 poles, 300 transformers and 100 miles of wire. A typical storm requires replacing 44 poles, 53 transformers and 15 miles of wire. The company replaces 400 poles in a typical year. Kane said crews worked 16-hour shifts for nine days to restore power to 300,000 customers.
Jennifer Neiswonger, the company’s director of company experience said it is considering using two-way text messaging services to communicate with customers and installing a chatbot on the company website for basic customer assistance.
Kane added that the company will invest $2.7 billion in infrastructure improvements over five years. According to John Van Zant, reliability and emergency preparedness supervisor for the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, moving all or most of the city’s electrical wires underground—as has been suggested—will not be feasible.
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