Written by Video: This security camera video taken from Renton’s West Hill (looking across town toward I-405 and Renton Highlands) shows two cycles of bright flashes as the power goes out for 6,045 customers on April 9, 2023. While the video is low resolution, the lights can be seen turning on and off in the background (east of I-405), as automatic switching or resetting circuit breaker systems attempt to keep the lights on. (Thanks to Jay Levias Sr. for this video)
I’m curious whether aging equipment, an overtaxed power grid, an external event, or just bad luck caused last night’s weird power outage. I’ll try to learn more and share it here if I can. If any readers know more about this, please add your information in the comments.
Here’s some of what I know so far:
Around 9:10 last night, bright flashes light up the night sky near I-405 and the Landing, as over 6,045 PSE customers in Renton and Newcastle witnessed their power shutting off, turning back on, then shutting off again, then on again, and then back off. As one of those customers, my home’s appliances chimed and complained as the surges and low voltages impacted devices from my washing machine to my computers in various ways. In the 38 years in my home, this was the strangest outage I had ever seen, partly due to the rave put on by the auto-switching stations trying to keep the lights on, partly because of the brilliant flashes many saw in the sky, and partly because there was nothing about the weather that would make an outage seem likely– it was a typical Seattle drizzly evening, with no significant wind or lightning. The outage had my family dashing through the house unplugging electronics that could be hurt by high power surges.
To the credit of the hard workers at PSE, the power was restored within the hour.
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