Faulty part was cause of residents left in the dark

If there is good news about the whole story, it’s that the short-term power outage didn’t come on a freezing night. About 100 city electric customers spent about an hour in the dark late Monday evening.

A faulty circuit breaker at a substation near downtown is being blamed for causing the surprise power disruption that affected businesses and homes along portions of Karsch Boulevard and North Street. Electric Department head Ron Sheppard said the problem breaker failed and when linemen went to check a systems analysis screen it had failed too. It took workers a short time to follow outgoing lines to determine the exact source of the power break.

Sheppard said the electric load for the affected area was transferred to other lines in the supply system and power was restored as quickly as possible. Workers spent part of Tuesday replacing the faulty circuit breaker and switching the power load back to the appropriate lines.

The only known problems associated with the outage was a medical call of a woman taking a tumble down a set of stairs, and police officers having to direct traffic for a time at intersections along Karsch.