Widespread power outage caused by blown insulators at Metropolis substation

A power outage impacted much of Massac County on Tuesday afternoon for several hours.

Local utility company Southern Illinois Electric Cooperative reported that a blown insulator at the Metropolis substation caused the widespread loss of power.

Crews were propared for an extended outage to repair the damaged insulators and coordinate with SIPC to get the substation back online, but they beat their own estimate of 11 p.m. by restoring power before 9 p.m.

Extreme heat and high electricity demand can be a likely cause of blown insulators at a substation, or of other types of failures to a power grid.

The same conditions are expected to be present through the rest of the week, so any efforts to try and reduce your electricity use can help prevent more outages.


(Photo: a typical electrical substation - Wikipedia)