Lessons Learned From a Catastrophic Storm

It’s been over two weeks since an unprecedented storm left more than 325,000 of our customers without power.

Duquesne Light Company (DLC) activated emergency response plans and mobilized more than 1,000 crew members — a genuine “all hands on deck” effort — to safely restore power as fast as possible. We’re immensely proud of our crews who worked consecutive 16-hour shifts to restore service. Their nonstop work helped us bring back nearly 95% of our customers within five days, despite facing damage at a magnitude we have not seen before.

With that said, we understand the frustration and hardships that come with extended power outages. As we enter the peak of storm season, preparedness is likely on everyone’s mind given what we just experienced. We are keenly focused on identifying and implementing lessons learned to improve our response to future events.

In the coming weeks, DLC will undergo an extensive internal review to find opportunities for improvement, especially as our region grapples with increasingly severe weather. We will also partner with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to review our response to the April 29 storm.

More details on these findings and our future action plans will be made available, but in the meantime, here are some areas where we plan to make near-term changes:

Communication

Communication remains one of our biggest opportunities. We’ve made considerable progress since launching a new outage management system in 2024, yet this storm demonstrated that more needs to be done. When severe weather hits, we know how important it is to get timely, accurate and specific outage communications that help our customers feel more at ease and empowered to make informed decisions. Going forward, we plan to complete a comprehensive review of our current customer notifications and modify them as needed to ensure that the messaging is clear and consistent. Simultaneously, we’re working on technical enhancements to improve the overall outage experience for our customers.

We also intend to focus on providing more localized estimated times of restoration (ETR) so that you can plan accordingly.

Finally, we will leverage internal resources to act as liaisons with communities that are hardest hit during a storm. This will help streamline the flow of communication and address questions and concerns in a more timely manner.

Technology

Technology is another focus point for us. The overwhelming call volume experienced at the peak of the storm challenged our system and made it difficult for customers to report an outage, including on our website and mobile app. We’re evaluating these challenges and building a plan to prevent further issues.

Vegetation Management

Vegetation management will remain a critical part of our efforts to mitigate future storm damage. Downed trees outside of our right of way are one of the leading causes of outages in our area, especially during severe weather, and it’s paramount that we maintain a robust program that prunes or removes vegetation that directly interferes with our equipment. To be successful in this endeavor, we need the support and collaboration of our communities and neighbors. We recently launched our 2025 vegetation management program that will maintain approximately 38,000 trees along 1,300 miles of power lines in Allegheny and Beaver counties.

Investing in the Electric Grid

We remain committed to making enhancements to ensure the efficacy and resilience of the grid, especially during severe weather. We’re investing more than $2 billion into upgrading and modernizing our infrastructure by 2027, including updating aging equipment and incorporating new technologies that enable better monitoring and quicker response times.

Moving Forward

There’s no doubt that the weather in our region is changing. We’re facing storms at a level that we aren’t used to in southwestern Pennsylvania, which makes our commitment to providing safe, reliable service and strengthening the grid more important than ever.

We appreciate your understanding and patience as we work through these improvements and find better ways to serve you.