Head office of Chatham-Kent electrical utility Entegrus May 19 2015 (Photo by Simon Crouch) Head office of Chatham-Kent electrical utility Entegrus May 19 2015 (Photo by Simon Crouch)
Chatham

Equipment failure gets the blame for weekend outages

Power provider Entegrus is releasing more information about a couple of power outages that took place in Chatham-Kent over the weekend.

Officials say an equipment failure at a Hydro One transmission station knocked out power to thousands of customers across Chatham, Ridgetown, Blenheim, Thamesville, and Erieau at around 8:45 p.m. Saturday. At the peak of the outage, 15,566 Entegrus customers were affected.

Entegrus and Hydro One crews worked together to restore power to the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance and approximately 600 customers in North Chatham and about half of the customers in Ridgetown by 10:30 p.m. Saturday.

The rest of the customers had their lights back on just before midnight Saturday.

The snow and wind this past weekend did some damage, too, causing additional outages in Merlin, Blenheim, and Ridgetown late Saturday night and early Sunday morning.

Power was fully restored to all Entegrus customers by 4:45 a.m. Sunday.

Officials are thanking customers for their patience during the outage, but they're also reminding you not to call 911 in the event of an outage. Instead, you should report the outage to Entegrus directly.

You can also prepare yourself by making sure you have an emergency kit that is up to date.

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