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Neighbors complain of Waukesha power surges
We Energies says power surges are rare. So, why has one Waukesha neighborhood had three in less than three years?
WAUKESHA, Wis. - We Energies says power surges are rare. So, why has one Waukesha neighborhood had three in less than three years?
The surges have cost some households thousands of dollars in damage.
Neighbors near Bestheda Elementary School say they’re at the mercy of a power imbalance.
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"We don’t feel safe in our homes," said Heather Prott, who lives on Apache Pass. "We’re scared this is going to happen again."
Prott says she understands that power outages can happen. She says power surges are another thing.
"This isn’t normal. There is something wrong," said Prott.
A power surge can happen when a high voltage line falls onto a lower voltage line, sending a surge of power into homes connected to the line. One example: when a tree branch that falls onto two high voltage lines. The power surging through the branch can cause a line to burn through, snap and fall onto a lower voltage line.
"It was a loud noise. A loud pop," Prott recalls of one surge. "Then, the power went out."
The first surge affecting Prott’s neighborhood was in June 2022. That’s when We Energies says a large tree branch fell onto a 25,000 volt line, took down the line, and it touched an 8,000 volt line.
The second surge happened in January 2024 during an ice storm. We Energies says the snow and ice weighed down tree branches and lowered the high voltage line into the low voltage line, again.
The third surge happened in late November 2024. We Energies says this time, an owl touched two high voltage lines, causing power to surge through the bird and one line to snap and fall.
Each incident happened along the same stretch of powerlines in Waukesha near the Glacial Drumlin State Trail.
"We feel like We Energies is not taking ownership," said Prott. "They essentially brushed us off and said, "sorry, there’s nothing we can do. It’s not our fault."
Prott has lost microwaves, surge protectors, LED lighting, ceiling fans and outlets to the surges. Her family even had to replace a new furnace after an electrician told her its circuit board caught fire. The furnace was under warranty.
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"We Energies paid our insurance deductible and the insurance did cover the rest of the house," said Prott. "However, now our monthly premium went up because we had to file an insurance claim."
Prott isn’t the only one feeling the financial jolt from the power surges in Waukesha. More than twenty people wrote to Contact 6, sending pictures of burnt items and describing hundreds, even thousands of dollars in damage. People told Contact 6 they’d lose furnaces, refrigerators, dishwashers, generators and more.
Sandy Lookatch on Comanche Lane has spent more than $10,000 on broken kitchen appliances, a washing machine, air conditioner and furnace. She’s on her third surge protector for her entire house and has smaller surge protectors in most rooms.
"People are like, "this is ridiculous," said Lookatch. "I’ve lived here since 1991. This has never happened."
Lookatch’s insurance denied her claim after the first surge, saying it was We Energies’ fault. We Energies offered Lookatch $500 for her damages, "in the interest of customer relations."
We Energies told Lookatch in a letter, "The outage was not due to incorrect design of electrical lines .. nor due to incorrect installation."
Lookatch says she never cashed the check.
"500 dollars was such a minimal amount to what I had put out," said Lookatch.
Brendan Conway is director of Media Relations for the WEC Energy Group. He took Contact 6 to the site of November’s power surge. Conway says the owl’s wings may have touched the lines as it dove for prey.
"Basically, it sent nearly 25,000 volts into a wire that’s 8,000 volts," said Conway.
Conway says the impacted wire serves up to 200 homes. He said the Public Service Commission (PSC) has looked into the surges and found We Energies acted properly.
"People are understandably frustrated," said Conway. "We have been and will continue to do everything we can to keep these things from happening."
Conway says We Energies cut back trees around the lines after the first surge in 2022. After the second surge, he says they trimmed back more than a mile of trees, extending more than ten feet out from the lines.
"There’s really no chance of a tree falling into one of our power lines in the mile-plus stretch around here," said Conway.
There is one reason why the surges happened in these Waukesha neighborhoods and not in other communities.
"This is an older set-up," said Conway. "Here you have the higher voltage line above the lower voltage. Most of our system doesn’t have that."
We Energies says it’s been retiring low voltage (8,000 volt) lines, facilities and equipment since the 1980s. They’re replacing lines like the low voltage one the high voltage line fell onto in Waukesha, causing the surges.
Conway says most of the lines are decades-old and at the end of their design life. Some date back to the 1940s and 50s.
"Most people seeing this story, most of our customers, they don’t have a situation where you have higher voltage and lower voltage together on the same span," said Conway.
We Energies plans to keep updating the 8,000 volt lines, like in Waukesha, to a single circuit line over the next two decades. One such project is underway right now in Merton. Conway says the new, single circuit line is better able to meet increasing energy demands, is more resilient to storms and is less expensive to maintain.
We Energies began its design work to update the affected Waukesha lines in February 2024, after the second surge.
"Construction may start as soon as next month," said Conway. "Certainly, we expect it will be done within the first half of 2025."
Neighbors say We Energies’ plan to update their lines is new information to them. When Contact 6 told Prott, she said she was "thankful at least something is being done."
Ben McGriff on Lynnewood Drive says he’s also lost multiple household surge protectors and a dishwasher. He recalls returning home after one outage to find a surge had knocked out his thermostat. He says the temperatures outside were frigid.
"When we got home, we’re thinking, "oh, we’re going to turn everything back on," said McGriff. "Nope."
It’s a pattern that’s left neighbors feeling powerless in more ways than one.
"We don’t want to see that pattern keep on repeating," said McGriff.
Contact 6 heard from neighbors who said insurance covered their damage. Others said their insurance did not. We Energies did pay some deductibles and other compensation, but says it handles claims on "a case-by-case basis."
Contact 6 heard from several people unhappy with what We Energies provided.
Representative Scott Allen’s office says he heard from many constituents about the power surge issues. Allen sent the PSC a letter on December 19th requesting a formal investigation into the matter.
"While any one event could be random and not the fault of We Energies," wrote Allen, "the repetitive nature of the damage raises questions about the efforts of We Energies to protect consumers from these issues by ensuring that their equipment has appropriate surge protection."
The letter goes on to state, "please investigate this matter and ensure that all state laws are being properly followed and that consumers, in your estimation, are being adequately protected."
A PSC spokesperson tells Contact 6 it has ten complaints from Waukesha County customers since January 2022.
"When a customer submits a complaint, the Bureau of Consumer Affairs initiates an informal investigation," wrote Megan Sovey-Lashua, PSC Director of Communications. "Five of these investigations are closed, and the other five are currently active."
We Energies says it has updated more than 4,000 miles of 8,000 volt lines to 25,000 volt lines over the last two decades.