Power restored after brief outage in Boston; problem was in same substation that caused March Back Bay blackout
Thousands of businesses and residents lost power briefly today after a problem in the same Back Bay electrical substation where a transformer fire triggered a March blackout that lasted for several days.
NStar said about 12,500 customers were affected at one point today, from the Charles River to the Fenway area, to Columbus Avenue in the South End, over to Clarendon Street and back to the Charles River. But the company said the outage lasted less than an hour, from just before noon to 12:45 p.m.
NStar spokeswoman Caroline Pretyman said the exact cause of the outage was under investigation.
However, she said, the company could confirm that there was no damage to any electrical components. “That’s why we were able to restore power in such a short amount of time,’’ she said.
The outage, which also knocked out traffic lights and the lights in the Prudential tunnel on the Massachusetts Turnpike, stirred unpleasant memories for those in the area of major inconveniences suffered during the March outage.
In the March incident, more than 20,000 customers across the city, including parts of the Back Bay, South End, Chinatown, the Theatre District, and Kenmore Square, lost electricity. Pretyman said today’s problem stemmed from the same substation on Scotia Street where the March 13 transformer fire occurred.
She noted that since the fire, “crews have been working around the clock to replace the transformer, make repairs, and put in additional contingencies to help provide added redundancies in the downtown Boston power network.’’
The work has taken place in both the substation and throughout the underground power system in the Back Bay area, she said.
By 1 p.m. most stores and restaurants along Newbury Street were open or preparing to reopen.
At B. Good restaurant, employees were testing the temperature of the food to make sure it stayed cold during the hour without power.
“We knew what we had to do,’’ said Valeria Costin.
Costin said the staff remembered what it was like to be without power in March and worried this would be an extended outage, too.
Still, remembering the previous outage wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. “It was almost like we were more prepared,’’ said Maria Cunningham.
Aaron Wetjen of Underground Hip Hop, a store at 234 Huntington Ave., was relieved that the outage was relatively quick compared to the one in March.
“We run a website from here, and we can’t do a single thing without power,’’ Wetjen said. “Last time this happened, it was insane.’’
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