​Bellevue’s Somerset and Eastgate neighborhoods suffer longer power outages than any other neighborhood in the city. What is Puget Sound Energy doing about it? The company’s two biggest projects, Energize Eastside and the Lake Hills Transmission Line, will not help. Neither will reduce outages for these neighborhoods.

We ask PSE and the City of Bellevue to take three steps to improve our electric service:

​1. Move approximately 4,000 feet of vulnerable power lines on Newport Way underground as part of the upcoming Newport Way sidewalk project. The current lines are often damaged by nearby trees during storms, causing long outages for our neighborhoods.

2. Install “self-healing grid” technology in these neighborhoods. PSE has improved reliability in 22 other neighborhoods using this technology while preserving valuable urban trees.

3. Revise PSE’s Franchise Agreement to require clear, comprehensible reporting of electrical reliability in each neighborhood. Graphs should show multi-year trends so customers can understand how reliability is changing. PSE should describe projects being undertaken to address reliability issues, especially in neighborhoods with poor reliability.

Reliable electric service is important to our health and well-being. Thank you for taking steps to improve the reliability of this critical resource.