Recloser switch failure briefly takes out power for 2,500 Met-Ed customers

Roughly 2,500 Met-Ed customers were briefly without power on Tuesday afternoon, July 9, after a recloser switch failed on a line near to the electric utility’s North Lebanon substation.

That would be the same substation that went down last month in an incident involving a turkey vulture and a squirrel.

Read More: Thousands without power after turkey vulture apparently lands on breaker

This incident, however, did not occur at the substation itself, and there’s no sign that any wildlife was involved.

Affected customers Tuesday afternoon were primarily located in Lebanon city and North Lebanon, Swatara, and West Lebanon townships.

Speaking on behalf of Met-Ed owner First Energy, spokesperson Todd Meyers explained that a recloser is a switch that helps power grids handle temporary issues more gracefully than a fuse would. Whereas a fuse would just pop if a line was contacted, and not come back, a recloser can open up if there’s a problem – like a tree branch hitting the line and then bouncing off – and then close again when the issue passes.

Meyers said that this recloser was very close to the substation, hence the number of customers who were affected.

Although a timeline for replacing the recloser switch had not been established yet, Meyers said that crews were able to restore power using a workaround.

No cause for the recloser switch failure has been identified at this time.