Puget Sound Energy tree trimming near power lines

Where PSE trims

PSE’s service area covers about 6,000 square miles, with 1.26 million electric customers. Its service-area map shows electric service in all of Kitsap, Skagit, Thurston and Whatcom counties and in parts of Island, King (not Seattle), Kittitas and Pierce (not Tacoma) counties. Natural-gas-only areas such as parts of Snohomish and Lewis counties are not PSE’s for tree work.

Seattle addresses belong to Seattle City Light, Tacoma addresses to Tacoma Power, and Snohomish County to the Snohomish PUD. The utilities index covers the rest.

What PSE trims and how often

PSE’s program covers primary lines, the pole-to-pole wires in the street right-of-way. A consulting utility forester for each region, who is a certified arborist, handles questions about vegetation near the lines in your neighborhood. PSE says it will not charge you to trim or remove trees or branches that may cause safety hazards, and after removing hazardous trees it works with agencies to replant where vegetation is needed.

PSE does not publish a trim cycle in years (not stated). A request through its contact form typically gets a reply within three business days, and work typically follows within two to four weeks; a PSE-certified arborist may come out within a few days to assess.

Clearance distance

PSE’s pages do not state a working clearance in feet for distribution lines (not stated). The only distance on its FAQ is a warning: if any part of a tree is within 10 ft of a power line, the electrocution risk is very high. Its Energy Landscaping brochure adds that vegetation maturing above 15 ft is removed under 230 kV transmission lines, and trees maturing over 25 ft may be removed near 115 kV lines unless they can be kept pruned.

The service line to your house

PSE’s contact-form page states that PSE does not trim service lines, the wires that run from a PSE pole to your home or meter pole. If a tree on your property is near or touching that wire, PSE will do a safety disconnection so that you or your private tree service or arborist can prune or remove the branches. Call 1-888-321-7779 at least five business days before the work; PSE says this is typically done at no charge.

The pruning itself, the crew and the haul-away are yours to arrange and pay for. A crew that knows the drill will book the disconnect first and schedule the climb for that window; see tree removal near power lines for how that job is sequenced.

How to request trimming

Use PSE’s online tree-trimming contact form or call the regional forester for your county. The form is monitored Monday through Friday in business hours only, so for anything urgent use the 1-888-225-5773 line instead. For trees that are nowhere near a line, that is ordinary tree trimming; the tree trimming cost page has modeled ranges for Washington.

A tree touching a line right now

Treat the tree and the ground around it as energized. Keep people and pets back, do not let anyone cut or pull the limb, and call 1-888-225-5773, PSE’s 24-hour emergency and outage line. If the wire is down, on a vehicle, or there is fire or an injury, call 911 first; PSE’s own form tells you to do the same.

No tree service should touch the tree until PSE has de-energized or cleared the line. What a crew can do after that, including removing a tree that fell on your roof, is on our emergency tree service page.

Who may work within 10 ft of a line

A Bellevue or Olympia tree service can take down everything outside the zone, but the part inside it waits for PSE or a line-clearance contractor. Confirm the crew’s L&I registration first; our Washington tree service license lookup guide shows the two-minute check.

Planting under PSE lines

PSE’s Energy Landscaping brochure is its right-tree, right-place list. For under overhead lines it recommends small trees that stay under 30 ft, naming Amur maple (20 ft), serviceberry (20 to 25 ft), star magnolia (20 ft) and crabapple (20 to 25 ft). Keep 3 ft clear on every side of a green pad-mounted transformer and 10 ft clear in front of its door, and do not put fences or rockeries against it. PSE does not publish planting distances from poles or lines (not stated).