Eaton Selected to Help Snohomish County Public Utility District Achieve 25% Reduction in Outage Impact and Strengthen Wildfire Protection
Intelligent power management company Eaton was recently awarded a multi-million-dollar project to deliver grid modernization solutions for Snohomish County Public Utility District (PUD) in Washington state. Over the next four years, Eaton will help the utility implement smart grid technology across its 6,000-mile distribution system to improve visibility and control capabilities, reduce outage duration and mitigate wildfire risk.
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Eaton awarded multi-million-dollar project to deliver grid modernization solutions helping Snohomish County Public Utility District reduce outage impact and mitigate wildfire risk.
Eaton is providing intelligent control and automatic circuit recloser technologies to support the utility's broader SnoSMART initiative, a $60 million infrastructure modernization project that aims to improve system reliability and wildfire protection. The project is partially funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and Eaton's regional manufacturing capabilities help ensure compliance with the program's domestic content requirements.
"Eaton's significant, long-standing investments in U.S. manufacturing and research and development are helping us meet unprecedented customer demand for our utility solutions advancing electrification, grid modernization and energy resilience," said Jason Plane, utility segment manager at Eaton. "We have engineered a tailored solution for the PUD that can be quickly deployed to accelerate a stronger, safer energy future for communities everywhere."
A key objective of the PUD's SnoSMART initiative is to achieve a 25% reduction in outage duration across its distribution network. Eaton research shows that using reclosers to provide transient fault protection on the entire distribution system can improve outage rates by 50–90%. In addition to automatically interrupting faults and restoring power after momentary outages, reclosers also reduce the duration of fault energy to help mitigate the risk of overhead distribution systems causing wildfires.
"We are deploying Eaton Nova NX-STS reclosers in areas of our service territory that face the greatest reliability challenges and wildfire risks," said PUD's John Hieb, P.E., distribution automation project manager. "By integrating wireless communication capabilities, we can remotely monitor and control this equipment in real time – enabling faster outage response and proactive wildfire mitigation that will strengthen grid resilience and enhance safety for our customers."
Snohomish PUD is the 12th largest public power utility in the nation and second largest in Washington state, serving reliable and affordable electricity to the 880,000 residents of Snohomish County and Camano Island since 1949.
Learn more about how Eaton is helping utilities accelerate the grid of the future.
Eaton is an intelligent power management company dedicated to protecting the environment and improving the quality of life for people everywhere. We make products for the data center, utility, industrial, commercial, machine building, residential, aerospace and mobility markets. We are guided by our commitment to do business right, to operate sustainably and to help our customers manage power ─ today and well into the future. By capitalizing on the global growth trends of electrification and digitalization, we're helping to solve the world's most urgent power management challenges and building a more sustainable society for people today and generations to come.
Founded in 1911, Eaton has continuously evolved to meet the changing and expanding needs of our stakeholders. With revenues of nearly $25 billion in 2024, the company serves customers in more than 160 countries. For more information, visit www.eaton.com. Follow us on LinkedIn.
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Kristin Somers
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Regina Parundik
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