By Friday afternoon, equipment trouble at a single North Tacoma substation had affected nearly 50,000 customers across Pierce County, cascading across two utility systems and blacking out neighborhoods from downtown Tacoma to Gig Harbor and the Key Peninsula. The outage began with a cluster of roughly 2,258 customers losing power around 9:30 a.m., before additional clusters went dark around 11:30 a.m. and the scope of the problem became clear.
A Cascade That Crossed the Narrows
Tacoma Public Utilities spokesperson Mike Halliday told the News Tribune that the utility had identified an issue with its Pearl Street Substation in North Tacoma, and that crews were heading to the site to diagnose the problem and begin restoring power. Halliday said TPU intended to restore service as quickly as possible once the cause was identified. According to the outlet, TPU's outage map initially showed about 25,000 customers without power across Tacoma's north end and University Place before that figure was revised down to roughly 12,593 customers later Friday.
The outage did not stay contained to Tacoma. Peninsula Light Company spokesperson Britni Wickens explained to the same outlet that her cooperative draws its power through Tacoma Public Utilities' transmission lines, so an issue on TPU's end typically knocks out Peninsula Light's entire territory at once. Wickens said the cooperative was still estimating how many thousands of customers were affected across Gig Harbor, the Key Peninsula, and Fox, Raft and Herron islands as the situation unfolded.
Why One Substation Can Black Out Two Counties' Worth of Customers
The vulnerability traces back to how power physically reaches the peninsula. Although Peninsula Light purchases all of its wholesale electricity from the federal Bonneville Power Administration, it has no independent way to move that power to its 112-square-mile service territory — it relies on a wheeling contract with Tacoma Public Utilities' high-voltage lines to carry electricity across the Tacoma Narrows, according to Gig Harbor Now. BPA and TPU electricity cannot be isolated, and major outages can involve high-voltage transmission lines.
That single transmission crossing has a long history. The original aerial line linking Pearl Street Substation to the Gig Harbor peninsula was strung in 1925 and 1926 as a 6,244-foot span, at the time the longest electrical water crossing in the world. In 1926, President Calvin Coolidge signaled the official opening of transmission to Tacoma, per the Tacoma Public Library. The line underwent a complete structural rebuild in 2006.
By the Numbers: Peak Outage Scope
By Friday afternoon, FOX 13 Seattle reported combined outages across Pierce County had reached nearly 50,000 customers at peak impact, with Peninsula Light logging over 36,000 affected members and Tacoma Public Utilities recording more than 13,000 customer outages. The News Tribune separately reported that Gig Harbor and the Key Peninsula had about 36,067 customers without power Friday. Peninsula Light's own outage map was not functioning as of 11:45 a.m., leaving the cooperative without a clear real-time count even as it posted that crews and staff were gathering details, with no cause or restoration estimate available yet. The map was restored around 12:19 p.m.
Peninsula Light serves more than 30,000 member homes and businesses and has drawn electricity originating from Tacoma's system since it was first energized in December 1926, according to the cooperative. The co-op secured a 16-year wholesale power contract with the Bonneville Power Administration in November 2025 that will supply at-cost hydroelectric power from October 2028 through September 2044 — a long-term sourcing deal that does nothing to change its physical dependence on Tacoma's transmission corridor in the meantime.
Not the First Time the Narrows Crossing Has Failed
Friday's outage echoes a March 2024 incident in which a single vehicle collision damaged a transmission pole tied to Peninsula Light's TPU-connected feeders, leaving more than 20,000 members without power across the Key Peninsula, Gig Harbor Now reported. It also follows a windstorm three weeks earlier that cut power to 843 Tacoma Power customers, 692 Lakewood customers and 261 Herron Island customers. Tacoma Power, a municipal utility established in 1893, serves roughly 180,000 customer accounts across a 180-square-mile footprint that includes Tacoma, University Place, Fircrest and unincorporated parts of the county.
As of Friday afternoon, the exact mechanical or electrical cause of the Pearl Street Substation failure had not been disclosed, and neither utility had provided a firm restoration timeline for all affected circuits. TPU crews were heading to the substation to determine the issue.
