Thousands of DP&L customers lose power Friday night

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SIDNEY — A failed underground cable caused 7,740 Sidney and Botkins DP&L customers to lose power Friday night, Aug. 21.

According to said Mary Ann Kabel, DP&L director of corporate communications, weather was not the cause of the Shelby County power outages, which occurred at 10:58 p.m., 11:01 p.m. and 11:02 p.m.”

The initial number was around 5,000,” she said, “but that number grew to 7,440.”

An underground cable failed, she said, which caused customers to lose power on and off from 8:22 to 11 p.m.

Sidney’s Public Works Director Jon Crusey said he was unaware of any issues caused by the power outages in Sidney, but Utilities Director William Blakely informed him the power outage was on the northern section of the city.

Blakely said, “The water and wastewater plants did not lose power and had no issues at all. On the collections side; Port Jefferson pump station, state Rout 47 E pump station, Mason Road lift station, Hoewisher lift station, and Plum Ridge lift stations all lost power. All but Plum Ridge have generators that kicked in right away, and the sewer staff connected our portable generator to the Plum Ridge lift station to keep it in operation. They did initial checks of all those pump stations when they got the alarms and again when electric service was restored and removed the portable generator and put back in storage. There was no issues with the stations and things ran smoothly.”

Randy Purdy, administrator for the village of Botkins, said the village experienced no major issues as a result of the power outage.

“Botkins only experienced very minor outages. It could have been much worse, but DP&L got the issue resolved quickly,” he said. “There was only some flickering of power, which triggered an alarm at the water plant, but by the time we got out there it was resolved.”

By Sheryl Roadcap

[email protected]

Reach the writer at 937-538-4823.

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