PA Issues Findings On Massive Pittsburgh Spring Storm Devastation

PITTSBURGH, PA — The state has completed a comprehensive review of the devastating April 2025 storms that swept across Southwestern Pennsylvania, cutting electric service to more than 500,000 electricity customers and causing widespread damage to utility infrastructure.

The Public Utilities Commission report that was released Monday examined how utilities responded to the extraordinary weather event, assessed the impact of the storm on infrastructure and operations and suggested ways to improve planning and resilience for future storms.

The commission's Bureau of Technical Utility Services, which includes specialists in emergency response and electric reliability, identified 25 findings and made 10 recommendations aimed at improving how utilities prepare for, respond to and recover from large-scale power outages.

Among the report’s key conclusions:

• Utilities’ preparatory steps were generally appropriate based on available weather and outage forecasts, but electric distribution companies should continue to work on improving weather forecasting and outage prediction modelling.
• Sufficient access to skilled line workers – both internal and through mutual aid – is critical to restoring service safely and efficiently following major outages.

Additionally, a statewide Electric Distribution Company Storm Best Practices Group should be reestablished and focus on issues such as:

• Storm response planning and scalability.
• Estimated time of restoration processes and communications.
• Mutual aid coordination and crew management.
• Road closure coordination and safety protocols.
• Sharing best practices and lessons learned from major events.

Additional recommendations call for utilities to refine restoration forecasting, strengthen call center performance during high-volume events, enhance coordination with emergency management agencies and continue investing in infrastructure hardening and system resilience.