SPOKANE, Wash. — A surprise power outage on Sunday left roughly 1,500 Avista Utilities customers without electricity in Spokane. The outage, which many customers found unexpected despite receiving day-of notice, occurred as part of Avista’s wildfire resilience program.
Avista alerted customers through phone calls and social media posts, notifying them of a public safety power shutoff that would happen later in the day. Some customers lost power as early as 2 p.m. and were without it until 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Avista said the shutdown was necessary to mitigate fire risk due to expected high winds. However, some customers felt the outage was unwarranted.
“I just don’t feel like the communication was very solid,” said Robert Archer, a North Indian Trail resident. “On their website, they said, ‘please be patient,’ but I looked around, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and my power was off.”
Avista explained that the outage was part of a wildfire resilience program implemented in 2020. According to Vern Melensky, Avista’s director of electrical engineering and design, advanced modeling software identified a circuit that was at critical risk.
“There was one circuit that we identified that had critical risk,” Melensky said. “And that was the circuit where we implemented Avista’s first-ever public safety power shutoff, which is a proactive de-energization of a circuit due to very extreme conditions. We do not take public safety power shutoffs lightly; we understand the critical nature for our customers.”
Some customers were left wondering why the notice was so sudden. Avista responded by saying rapid changes in weather conditions require cautious reactions, especially when fire risk is high.
The public safety power shutoff is a new precaution, and only certain areas experienced the outage due to the critical nature of the circuit in question. Avista urges customers to keep their phone numbers updated to receive timely notifications in the future.
With more storms on the horizon, this type of shutoff could happen again.
Avista also offers a battery backup program for customers who rely on life-support systems to ensure safety during future outages.