Were you one of the approximately 4,000 customers affected by Tuesday’s power outages in Lebanon?
News of the outage spread through social media the morning of Jan. 21, with reports that some traffic lights in Lebanon had been affected by the issue.
We reached out to Met-Ed owner First Energy for some more information on what caused the outage.
“At 10:43 a.m., one of the large circuit breakers failed in our Met-Ed substation near the Quittie just off of North Eight Street in the city,” said First Energy spokesperson Todd Meyers in an email to LebTown. Meyers said that the customers were primarily affected in the area from Lincoln Avenue to 12th Street.
Meyers noted that Met-Ed crews immediately jumped into action, temporarily reconfiguring the electric network to get service restored to as many customers as possible.
Meyers said that 1,000 customers were restored in the first half-hour and that nearly everyone had service restored by 1:00 p.m.
“The breaker that caused the issue was brand new and recently installed,” said Meyers. “We’ll need to consult with the manufacturer and it may need to be replaced.”
“Fortunately, there is a spare breaker at the substation for just this kind of contingency.”
Met-Ed has approximately 59,000 customers in Lebanon County. Met-Ed is one of several companies operated by First Energy in Pennsylvania.