Peninsula Light Company News

Supervising Editor: Jonathan White • 253-857-1514 • newsletter@penlight.org • Produced by Peninsula Light Company

DON’T FORGET THOSE HIDDEN NUMBERS!Every month, five randomly chosen account numbers are hidden in Lights. If you spot yours, call Cathy at 253-857-1525 and receive a $50 credit on your next bill.

INSIDE:

To report an outage, call877-853-1388. Learn more at PenLight.org/Power-Outages.

Crews work to install tree wire on 40th Street near Artondale Elementary School.

PenLight 253-857-5950 • PenLight.org • PenLight Office: 13315 Goodnough Drive NW, Gig Harbor, WA 98332

For nearly a decade, Peninsula Light Co. has focused on updating or replacing aging infrastructure to improve the service you receive at your home or business. That, will soon change.

PenLight has invested about $6 million per year since 2007 to solidify service reliability. That’s when CEO Jafar Taghavi was hired, and his direction was to

identify the 10 worst-performing circuits and to prioritize their improvement. The major push was on the areas that serve the most people, as well as the Peninsula School District.

Tree wire, which has an insulated coating that helps prevent outages when smaller branches contact our lines, was added to our reliability toolbox in 2014. It has been installed in areas where undergrounding was more expensive and wouldn’t prove to be more effective.

Additional efforts in 2015-16–at about $8 million per year–helped us reach the first quartile of utilities in the nation in terms of outage frequency and duration. That accomplished a major goal we set when we were in the fourth quartile nationwide prior to 2007. Those results are compared with all utilities in all climates, not just those similar to us in size or region. We’re particularly proud considering the geographical challenges the Pacific Northwest presents: trees, slides and coastal wind storms.

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Don't Wait, Activate!Update your info and opt in for outage texting reporting. The past several years, we have made great strides in our ability to keep your lights on. But there still will be times when your service is interrupted, especially during widespread storm events.

When those incidents occur, you no longer have to tie up a phone line to let us know you’ve lost power. You can opt in to our outage texting program and send us a one-word response if your house goes dark.

Here’s how it works: • Call 253-857-5950 to make sure your cellphone is included on your account.

• From your cellphone, text “penlight” to 85700.

• You will get a request to confirm your service address.

• Follow the directions to confirm your address, and you will be enrolled for outage texting.

• Save 85700 in your phone’s address book as PenLight’s outage texting number.

Once enrolled, you will be able to report an outage with the following steps: • If your power goes out, text the word “out” to 85700.

• You will receive a response that asks you to confirm your service location. Reply with “A” for “yes,” or “other” for a different address.

• Once you respond, your outage will be reported, and you should receive a confirmation reply.

You can opt out of the outage texting program at any time by sending the word “stop” to 85700.

For additional assistance, call Member Services at 253-857-5950.

October/November 2016

Project Help

Outage TrackerAugust 15 - September 15, 2016

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Purdy Big TrucksCommunityCALENDAR STREAM MONITOR WORKSHOP – OCT. 15, 9 A.M. The Key Peninsula-Gig Harbor-Islands Watershed district will hold a stream monitoring workshop from 9 a.m. to noon for anyone interested in becoming a stream monitor or learning more about water quality sampling. Directions to the workshop and other information will be sent upon registration. To register, call Belinda Paterno at 253-845-9770, ext. 109, or email belindap@piercecountycd.org.

GIG HARBOR FILM FESTIVAL – OCT. 20-23 The annual Gig Harbor Film Festival will show accepted films at the 10-screen Galaxy Theatre at the Uptown Gig Harbor Shopping Center, 4649 Point Fosdick Drive NW. Selected filmmakers and directors will attend, and many will provide Q&A sessions following the screening of their films. For more information, visit www.gigharborfilmfestival.org.

#COMMUNITYHARVESTPROJECT – OCT. 22, 10 A.M. Community efforts to meet the nutritional needs of families across both peninsulas will help Food Backpacks 4 Kids and the Gig Harbor Basket Brigade during the #CommunityHarvestProject. The Greater Gig Harbor Foundation will lead the effort to secure food and funding for about 12,000 meals on Make a Difference Day. For more information, call 253-514-6338.

BLUES & BREWS FEST – OCT. 29 The annual Blues & Brews Fest for patrons 21 and older is Saturday October 29 at the Key Peninsula Civic Center, 17010 S. Vaughn Road KPN, Vaughn. Advance tickets are $15. Dinner and seasonal brews will be available for additional purchase. All proceeds benefit the Key Peninsula Civic Center. For more information, call 253-884-3456.

TRICK OR TREAT IN THE HARBOR – OCT. 31, 2 P.M. Harborview Drive will be closed in downtown Gig Harbor for the free annual trick or treat event. Business owners and other vendors will provide goodies for ghouls and goblins. For more information, visit www.gigharborwaterfront.org.

UPTOWN TRICK OR TREATING – OCT. 31, 4 P.M. Merchants at the Uptown Gig Harbor Shopping Center will host trick-or-treaters at 4701 Point Fosdick Drive NW. For more information, visit www.uptowngigharbor.com.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT PRESENTATION – NOV. 2, 6 P.M. Scott Woodward will provide a presentation titled “Theodore Roosevelt: Wilderness Warrior” at the Harbor History Museum, 4121 Harborview Drive, Gig Harbor. President Roosevelt made a 17-city whistle stop tour of Washington State in 1903. The presentation will combine music, anthropology and history. The event is free, but seats are limited. Contact Alphild Dick, 253-858-6722, ext. 5 or by email at alphildd@harborhistorymuseum.org.

FIRST SATURDAY ART WALK – NOV. 5, 10 A.M. The First Saturday Art Walk features six galleries and free demonstrations, refreshments and displays. Pick up a passport at the first gallery you visit, and drop it off at your last stop. Stamps from each stop make you eligible for a $50 gift certificate drawing. Galleries include Ebb Tide Gallery, Gallery Row, Water’s Edge Gallery & Framery Inc., Blackwater Trading Co., Sea Hags, Morso and Maritime Jewelry, Dolly Mama Boutique and Harbor WildWatch.

GIRLS NIGHT OUT – NOV. 10, 10 A.M. The Downtown Waterfront Alliance’s annual Girls Night Out event presents an all-day opportunity to shop and dine, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Presales for goodie bags will be held at participating businesses while supplies last. For more information, email info@ghhwa.org.

WINTER WARMUP CRAFTS FAIR – NOV. 12, 9 A.M. The ninth annual Winter Warmup Crafts Fair and Chili Competition will be at the Key Peninsula Civic Center, 17010 S. Vaughn Road KPN, Vaughn. More than 50 booths with handmade crafts and local artisans are on hand. Concessions will be available, along with kids’ crafts, entertainment and more. For more information, call 253-884-3456 or email kpciviccenter@centurytel.net.

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Reliability to See a Future Shift

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Solar Workshop

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Big Truck Night a Hit at Purdy Elementary

Peninsula School District teachers got hands-on experience this summer during a workshop designed to help them with lesson plans that incorporate solar technology. PenLight sponsored the program, taught by Parker Mullins from Solar 4R Schools.

The workshop, hosted by the Harbor History Museum, taught the educators how to build and test sun oven and solar boats, and how to create solar circuits. Each teacher who attended will have access to science kit materials valued at $15,000 at both the museum and the school district.

Solar 4R Schools is a program of the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, which partnered with PenLight to build the 60-kilowatt Harbor Community Solar project at the museum. Real-time data that shows the energy production can be found at the museum and online at www.solar4rschools.org.

PenLight helped ring in the new academic year at Purdy Elementary School during the second annual Big Truck Night on August 30. Students and parents got an up-close look at several vehicles and community businesses with vendor booths the night before the first day of school. The PenLigh sponsored event raised more than $2,500 for this year’s fifth-grade class.

Photos courtesy of Kathleen Moloznik, Purdy PTA

Solar Workshop to Bring Technology to Classrooms

Follow PenLight for the Latest News: facebook.com/PenLightCo twitter.com/PenLightCo

Peninsula Light Co. Newsletter October/November 2016

Help Your Neighbors by Donating to Project Help Sometimes there’s not enough to make ends meet.

During the winter, many living expenses go up and often make it difficult for families who are struggling to make ends meet, let alone stay warm. We can help.

Our Project Help program is designed to help income-qualifying families with up to $200 of support each year. The program provides funds through a partnership with Key Peninsula Community Services to offset costs for those who need assistance with their electric bill.

The economy is still hurting, and the need continues to rise. We’re looking for additional support from the community. The best part is, we will match your donations dollar for dollar.

THREE WAYS TO CONTRIBUTE PenLight members can donate to help their neighbors in one of three ways:

• One-time gift.

• Recurring monthly donation.

• Rounding up your bill each month to the nearest whole dollar.

The round-up campaign is the newest way members can contribute. On average, those who enroll will add only about $6 to their annual bill. Those donations can go a long way to help neighbors who sometimes have to choose between food and heat.

Since last year, more than 1,500 people have signed up to donate funds. That brings the total number of supporters to about 1,900. Our goal is to encourage 10,000 of our members–one-third of our service area–to sign up for the Project Help Round-Up campaign. You can help by visiting www.penlight.org/project-help, or by calling our Member Services Department at 253-857-5950.

PROGRAM BENEFITS About 550 Gig Harbor-area families have benefited from an average of $110,000 through Project Help annually since 2009. Yet the program needs more funds because the demand is on the rise. No administrative costs are deducted and all contributions are tax-deductible, so every dollar goes to help your neighbors in need.

Contact us today to learn how you can give the gift of warmth this winter.

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While this 10-year reliability plan has been successful, many projects will be slowing down or beginning to sunset by 2018. Our emphasis will shift to one that focuses on technology, from the way your meter communicates to our substations and billing system to the way our grid will be able to detect an outage, isolate it to as few members as possible, and switch or reroute power to others in the vicinity–all within a fraction of a second. We also will build additional redundancy into our system by linking together a few key circuits. That will allow for more switching capability in the future.

Our reliability efforts aren’t complete. In fact, staying in the first quartile in national indices might be more difficult than getting there in the first place. PenLight will continue to build on the backbone that exists, which will make our system more intelligent so we can learn about and respond to outages even faster.

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