Update 3:15 p.m. – Met-Ed has shared additional details with LebTown about Sunday’s outage, and said that all customers have been restored as of approximately 2 p.m.
Spokesperson Todd Meyers said that the outage began around 7:30 a.m. Sunday when a transformer at the utility’s Third and Willow streets substation tripped off. Meyers said that electricians were able to work on the equipment at the substation and bring the transformer back on line around 9:30 a.m.
However, the issue at the Third and Willow streets substation caused a breaker to open at another of the utility’s interconnected substations in Lebanon. This breaker opened as designed to prevent damage to equipment and keep employees safe, Meyers said. Although crews responded immediately, they were unable to reset and close the breaker without making repairs.
“Again, we appreciate our customers’ patience while as crews worked as quickly as safety permitted to get the lights back on,” said Meyers.
Update 11:30 a.m. – The First Energy outage map now shows that the majority of affected customers have had power restored, but 1,398 customers still remain without service.
Lebanon city residents reported widespread power outages Sunday, June 23.
It’s the fourth major outage in the past three weeks, in a series of incidents that began Friday, June 7, when a circuit breaker opened at the utility’s Third & Willow streets substation. Another outage occurred Friday, June 14, when a temporary mobile transformer installed at that substation failed.
Read More: 2nd Friday outage in a row for city residents, mechanics on the way
A third, unrelated outage occurred Wednesday, June 19, when a turkey vulture apparently landed on a breaker at Met-Ed’s North Lebanon Substation and damaged the equipment.
Read More: Thousands without power after turkey vulture apparently lands on breaker
According to an outage dashboard maintained by Met-Ed owner First Energy, approximately 4,800 customers are currently without power in Lebanon County, the vast majority of which are in Lebanon city and the remainder mostly in North Lebanon Township.
LebTown has submitted an enquiry through Met-Ed’s media hotline and will update this article when more information is available.
At present, the First Energy outage dashboard says that the outages are “pending investigation.”
“Your outage has been reported,” reads the status message. “Crews will be assigned to investigate.”
No timeline for service being restored was available as of publication time.
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