Around midday on Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023, 36,000 Avista customers were impacted by a natural gas outage when a pipeline—owned and operated by Williams Pipeline—was damaged by a third party.
That damage caused loss of pressure to the system that supplies natural gas to Avista in portions of Eastern Washington and Western Idaho. Although Williams’ crews repaired the pipeline by Thursday afternoon, for Avista, the intense work was just starting.
Avista faced the challenge of turning off natural gas at every meter while the system repressurized, then turning the gas back on and relighting appliances for thousands of customers in cities and towns spread throughout its service territory.
For help, the utility drew on the American Gas Association’s Mutual Aid program, requesting technicians to help coordinate and execute the work. More than 300 utility employees from eight utilities in eight states—as far away as California and South Dakota—responded quickly. Relight work began on Friday, and technicians visited every customer by day’s end the following Tuesday.
Participating utilities included Black Hills Energy, Cascade Energy, City of Ellensburg, Dominion Energy Utah, Northwestern Energy, NW Natural, Puget Sound Energy and Pacific Gas & Electric Company.
To help coordinate the work, Avista implemented a process for teams to complete orders electronically, eliminating the communication problems that can occur when field personnel rely on their own company’s computer systems. The investment and planning contributed to the remarkably efficient results—reaching peaks of more than 900 relights an hour.
“It took thousands of work hours to restore services,” Avista President and Chief Operating Officer Heather Rosentrater said. “We are extremely proud of our employees, mutual aid partners and local HVAC contractors for accomplishing this extraordinary effort. We will forever be grateful.”
“AGA’s Mutual Aid program enhances collaboration across the natural gas industry with the understanding that our combined resources can quickly restore natural gas access for communities that are hit by disasters and help ensure Americans have the energy they need and expect for comfortable homes, warm food and hot showers,” said AGA CEO Karen Harbert. “Our members are committed to the safe and reliable delivery of natural gas and are proud to assist other utilities and communities in their time of need.”