Power outage linked to DP&L malfunction
- Published: May 31, 2011
All of Yellow Springs lost power for more than two hours Monday night due to a malfunction at a DP&L substation. All together, about 1,900 residences, including some in Xenia, lost power on Monday night beginning at about 7:30 p.m. and continuing until after 10, according to DP&L Operations Director Tom Tatham.
The malfunction took place when a breaker tripped at a DP&L substation on Trebein Road, according to Yellow Springs Village Manager Mark Cundiff on Tuesday. At that point, the switching station at Yellow Springs ceased receiving power until the malfunction was fixed.
As of Tuesday, DP&L officials had not identified a reason for the outage.
While the outage could have been related to peak use due to Memorial Day’s high temperatures, that reason seems unlikely since usage is generally higher during the work week when businesses are using power, according to Cundiff. In Yellow Springs, peak use has decreased over the past several years since the closing of Antioch College and several local businesses. For instance, the highest peak use day in Yellow Springs on record was in 1999, when use hit 11 megawatts on a single day, compared with more recent peak usage of 7.5 megawatts in 2009. Overall, according to Cundiff, peak usage in Yellow Springs is down 2 to 3 megawatts compared to several years ago.
However, the Village is investigating the Memorial Day outage and intends to find out if there is anything that can be done locally to decrease the chances of an outage happening again, Cundiff said..
The power also went out in the village for several hours a week ago Monday, May 23, when a tree fell on a DP&L transmission line during a storm.
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