West Sound Grid Improvements

PSE completed a detailed assessment of the West Sound’s electric system needs and identified the need for increased transmission capacity and improved transmission reliability.

Increased transmission capacity

Electric use in the West Sound is growing largely due to:

• Significant population and commercial growth
  • Since 1960, Kitsap County's population alone has grown by more than 193,000 people, a nearly 230% increase.
  • This region is home to major players in the manufacturing, maritime and defense industries, including Naval Base Kitsap, one of the Navy's largest installations in the US and Kitsap County's biggest employer.
• More extreme temperatures
  • We increasingly rely on electrical appliances throughout our daily lives, especially during the hottest and coldest times of year.
  • Until recently, Western Washington experienced peak electrical demand during the winter months only. Now our region experiences peak electrical demand during the summer months too, as air conditioning becomes more popular.
• New building codes
  • Washington’s Building Code requires new buildings to meet higher energy efficiency standards than ever before, incentivizing developers to install efficient electric appliances like heat pumps over appliances that run on natural gas or other fossil fuels. This means more customers will rely on electric-powered appliances in the future.
• Increasing vehicle, ferry and transit electrification
  • Electric vehicle use is growing in the West Sound and across the state. Since 2018, the number of registered EVs in Kitsap County has grown by 4,000, a nearly 200% increase.
  • In addition, Washington State Ferries and Kitsap Transit are electrifying their fleets.

PSE projects Kitsap County’s winter peak* electric load to grow from 651 megawatts (MW) in 2023 to 726 MW by 2035, an 11% increase. If PSE doesn’t increase the West Sound’s transmission system capacity, this increased electric load would constrain the system leading to large-scale outages or the need for PSE to shed load by turning off customers’ electric service.

*“Winter peak” refers to the time in which the highest amount of electricity is used during the winter. Kitsap County’s winter peak occurs in the morning and typically on the coldest days of the year due to the increased use of heating.

Improved transmission reliability

Based on recent data, PSE’s West Sound customers experience more frequent and longer outages compared to the average PSE customer due to:

• Aging infrastructure
  • The West Sound’s electric infrastructure, built over 40 years ago, is aging and needs to be replaced.
• Lack of redundancy
  • The current transmission supply and parts of the local transmission network in Kitsap County lack redundancy (i.e., don’t have back-up if the transmission source goes out). Under certain scenarios, this could lead to large-scale outages.
• Lack of operational flexibility
  • Under the existing transmission network, PSE has limited flexibility for scheduling outages during the winter, when electric demand is especially high. If we need to make repairs or perform maintenance during the winter, at times we have to put the transmission network in a more vulnerable configuration, which increases outage risk.

By upgrading the West Sound’s electric infrastructure, PSE will create a power grid that is more resilient, reliable and capable of meeting the region’s growing energy needs. The West Sound grid improvements project will ensure PSE can continue to provide safe, reliable energy to West Sound businesses and residents.

Conservation is key to helping PSE meet the West Sound’s energy capacity needs. We encourage our customers to conserve energy and help us reach our conservation goals by participating in our energy-efficiency programs like PSE Flex. However, conservation efforts alone are not enough to keep up with the West Sound’s increasing demand for energy (see Project Overview above).

In addition, conservation only helps in reducing capacity need. It does not address the fact that the West Sound’s infrastructure is over 40 years old and needs to be replaced to help ensure grid resiliency.

PSE is in the process of investigating potential solutions to meet the West Sound’s need for increased transmission capacity and upgrades where infrastructure is aging. We expect to conclude this process and share our preliminary solution with the public in early 2026.

Yes, in addition to traditional “wires” options, PSE is also exploring new technologies to meet the West Sound’s electric system needs. In early 2024, we released a Non-wires Alternatives Request for Proposals (RFP) to look broadly at non-wires options, such as battery energy storage systems (BESS), and hybrid options, which combine wires and non-wires components. We are exploring all possible options to find a solution that best fits the needs of the West Sound.

In 2025, after PSE completes our solution evaluation process, we will inform project communities about the alternatives we considered, solution we propose and the project planning process.

Throughout the duration of this project, PSE will keep project communities informed of our progress, potential impacts and opportunities to share input.

Ways to stay involved:

• Sign up for our e-newsletter below.
• If you have questions, please call 425-462-3070 or email westsoundgrid@pse.com.

PSE is a regulated investor-owned utility whose actions are carefully monitored and reviewed by the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC). In order to build needed upgrades to the electrical system, we generally invest the money upfront. Once these capital upgrades are “live” (power is flowing through the lines and customers are receiving power from those lines), we then submit the amount of the capital investment to the UTC. The UTC reviews the investments for prudency before these amounts can impact rates.

Once the costs of upgrades or additions to our electrical infrastructure are approved by the UTC, they are shared by all of PSE’s 1.2 million customers and paid for over time.

PSE doesn’t have plans to build more than one transmission line in our existing transmission easement corridor within our current 10-year planning horizon. However, PSE reserves the full extent of the corridor for any future planning needs.

An easement is a right to use land owned by someone else for a limited purpose. It is recorded with the County Assessor and typically documented in a property’s title report.

It takes thousands of miles of wires and pipes to provide electric and natural gas service to the homes and businesses PSE serves. Many of these facilities are located within public rights-of-way, such as roads. If energy infrastructure needs to be located on private property, we partner with property owners to obtain an easement. An easement secures our ability to access the property, operate our facilities, manage vegetation and make future system improvements to keep power and natural gas flowing to our customers. There are many different types of easements including permanent operating rights (for poles and wires), vegetation management, access, and temporary construction easements that are tailored to each project.

View our easement process factsheet to learn more.

While PSE plans to utilize as much existing right of way for the project as we can, all options being evaluated require PSE to acquire some new easements.

Beginning in Fall 2024, PSE began the process of acquiring easements along one of our existing transmission easement corridors located between Trident Blvd./Luoto Rd. in Silverdale and just north of West Belfair Valley Rd. in Bremerton (view map). We have existing easement rights along a majority of the corridor but need to acquire a handful of remaining easements to complete our rights in the corridor. By having the entire corridor in place sooner rather than later, we can prevent future conflicts with upcoming developments in the area and more efficiently and conscientiously plan for the West Sound’s electric system needs.

View our factsheet to learn more about the easement acquisition process.

If PSE needs to acquire a new easement on your property, you will receive a letter from PSE’s Real Estate team notifying you of our need to acquire an easement and sharing more information about next steps and the acquisition process.

View our factsheet to learn more about the easement acquisition process.

Generally, you may make any use of your property that does not interfere with construction, operation or maintenance of PSE’s facilities. Our easements restrict structures and some vegetation from being located within the easement area. You can contact us at rightofway@pse.com or 1-888-225-5773 for more information on what is and is not allowable within the easement area.

PSE will determine on a case-by-case basis whether to relocate or replace any structures within the transmission easement corridor that are not compatible with the safe operation and maintenance of our facilities.

PSE has an existing transmission easement corridor that runs along the east side of a Bonneville Power Administration corridor (view map). Each of these corridors, located side-by-side, are approximately 14 miles long and 125 feet wide. BPA has a transmission line on their corridor. PSE does not currently have a transmission line or any other electric infrastructure on our transmission easement corridor.

As part of the planning process, PSE is conducting environmental fieldwork in and around locations where system improvements could be made. This includes surveying critical areas (e.g., wetlands, streams, fish and wildlife habitats). We will keep you informed of additional fieldwork activities as the project progresses.

Current fieldwork notice

All solution options being evaluated require some tree removal to ensure a safe working and operating environment, but we won’t know the extent of tree removal until we’ve developed the design for the final solution. If one or more trees on your property are identified for removal, a PSE representative will contact you to discuss replanting options and ways to minimize impacts as much as possible.

PSE’s goal is to minimize impacts to trees and other vegetation. We only remove trees that are incompatible with constructing, operating or maintaining our electric infrastructure. If we cannot avoid impacts, then we commit to fully restoring or mitigating for those impacts consistent with applicable laws and regulations. We will have a better understanding of our vegetation mitigation approach once we’ve developed a design for the final solution.