SPOKANE, Wash. Nov. 10, 2023: Today, Avista provided an update regarding the restoration of natural gas services to an estimated 37,000 natural gas customers who have been without heat, hot water and other services for the last 40 hours. This event has been the largest natural gas outage in Avista’s history.
Avista has developed maps for each region, along with zones which indicate the order of restoration and a window of time crews are expected to be in each zone. Relight sequencing times are based on geographic location of the infrastructure. However, critical customers, such as hospitals and medical facilities, are being prioritized. Additional information about the estimated restoration times identified by area can be accessed, by visiting https://www.myavista.com/outages/wp-updates.
At this point, almost all customers have already been shut-off in preparation for restoration, and Avista’s distribution system has been repressurized.
With the help of over 400 crew members addressing restoration efforts, Avista is going through the process of relighting natural gas appliances between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. The complete natural gas restoration for Avista customers is estimated to be complete by end of day Tuesday.
Customers will receive notification within 24 hours of their planned relight that crews are headed to their zone.
The relight process involves a service person knocking on a door and entering the property when a resident or business owner is present. An adult will need to be present to let the service person inside. Customers are asked not to leave doors to homes unlocked. All field personnel conducting relights will have identification.
Once relit, Avista will check the appliances in the residence. If the resident is not home, Avista will leave a card on the door upon the last attempt for the day, inviting the customer to call Avista so someone can come back to relight.
Customers do not need to schedule their own relights. There is no cost to customers for relights or gas restoration activity.
In rare situations, Avista may find appliance repairs are needed before being proceeding with a relight. In these circumstances, customers may need to work with a licensed dealer to complete the repair. Avista can return to do a safety check.
“Our top priority remains the same – to restore natural gas as quickly and safely as possible to our customers. We are keenly aware of the hardship, stress and frustration people are experiencing – particularly with the cold weather upon us.” said Heather Rosentrater, Avista President and COO. “Our team is doing everything we can to expedite this critical work. We will keep working until every customer is restored.”
As this process continues, Avista will share information to customers and the public as it becomes available.
About Avista Utilities
Avista Utilities is involved in the production, transmission and distribution of energy. We provide energy services and electricity to 408,000 customers and natural gas to 375,000 customers in a service territory that covers 30,000 square miles in eastern Washington, northern Idaho and parts of southern and eastern Oregon, with a population of 1.7 million. Avista Utilities is an operating division of Avista Corp. (NYSE: AVA). For more information, please visit www.myavista.com.
