Cold Temperatures, Equipment Failures, and Crash Led to Multiple Power Outages in St. Marys 

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Residents on the west side of St. Marys experienced several power outages last night as utility crews worked through a series of compounding issues, according to city Electric Superintendent Mack Kuenning.

Kuenning said the first outage was reported on the city’s west circuit, where crews quickly found a large tree branch lying across the power lines. After clearing the branch and resetting the recloser, power was restored, but only temporarily.

“The power stayed on for about an hour to an hour and a half, then went back out,” Kuenning said. Crews ran the lines again but were unable to find another visible issue. Power was restored once more, only to fail again within about 20 minutes.

Kuenning said the repeated outages were traced to a recloser that appeared to be malfunctioning, possibly due to extremely cold temperatures around 2 degrees. He noted the issue is still being investigated and the equipment will either be repaired or replaced.

While crews were addressing the recloser problem, a separate incident added to the disruption. Kuenning said a semi truck was involved in a hit-and-run that damaged a 500-kVA transformer near JT’s restaurant, creating what he described as “a mess” and requiring additional crews to respond.

To bypass the failing recloser, crews had to briefly shut off power to safely install solid blades, which caused additional momentary outages. During that process, another complication arose when a breaker failed at the Tomlinson substation, triggering a larger outage affecting more customers on the west side of the city.

Crews worked through breaker replacements and switching operations to restore service. Kuenning said the combination of equipment failures, cold weather, and the transformer damage resulted in multiple on-and-off outages over several hours.

City officials say power was ultimately restored, and further evaluation of the affected equipment will continue to help prevent similar issues in the future.