Cleveland Public Power responds to Windstorm Outages

Submitted by sshockley on
Wet pavement and a downed power line

CLEVELAND – On Sunday, November 15, 2020, the City of Cleveland and surrounding areas were hit with a major windstorm with wind gusts exceeding 60 mph. At the height of this storm, Cleveland Public Power experiencing 18 feeders tripping open. This resulted in approximately 7,665 customers simultaneously being without power.

Overall, a total of 8,797 non-simultaneous customers were affected by the windstorm and the opening of feeders. In addition, thousands of customers were experiencing outages due to downed wires, poles down, trees down, and blown primary fuses.

By midnight the feeders were all restored, and CPP was now working to replace wires, poles, and fuses while also moving trees to restore power. 

Interim Commissioner Joy Perry explained, “During a major storm with winds of this magnitude safety is our first priority followed by the closing of feeders. The closing of feeder results in hundreds, even thousands of customers returning to service promptly. The next order is to clear up downed wires, and any other obstructions preventing service.” 

On Monday crews were continuing to work through the list of customers still without power. With many downed wires, poles, and trees these were their first priority. When all of the hazards were removed, crews began to work on “localized” outages representing single, possibly double residences.

“The winds initially slowed our progress due to the high speeds, followed by the number of wires, poles, and trees down,” said Robert Davis, Director of Public Utilities for the City of Cleveland. Davis, further indicated that crews will be working throughout this evening to restore, additionally, all hands will be on deck throughout Tuesday to complete any remaining outages.

Areas affected include pockets on the west side including Old Brooklyn, pockets in the St. Clair Superior area on the east side, and small numbers of individual outages on the southeast side. It is estimated there are approximately 350-400 customers without service at this time. Other than individual lines being down, there are transformers and fuses that need to be replaced.