Power Restored in Middlesex County
Power has been restored to the last 1,800 PSE&G customers in Middlesex County who were without it for a second day after a substation fire on Saturday.
"All customers affected by the Edison substation outage have been restored," read a tweet from PSE&G around 5 p.m. "Sorry for the disruption, thanks for your patience."
While customers in Edison had been restored on Saturday night, most of the Highland Park customers remained in the dark for a second day on Sunday.
Spokesperson Christina Lloyd, who confirmed the restoration to New Jersey 101.5 in a phone call explained that condensation in a substation in Edison led to an explosion that caused extensive damage. Lloyd said there was a lot of reconstruction of the substation that had to happen before power could be restored.
Wind and rain were slowing efforts to repair the 4,000-volt breaker in Edison PSE&G spokesperson Rosa Lopez tells MyCentralJersey.com.
On its Facebook page the borough reports that Mayor Gary Minkoff has been meeting with PSE&G and that "extensive damage" at the Edison substation is to blame for the delay in restoration. The page reports senior housing has their power back.
Fires in Edison and Union led to over 10,000 PSE&G customers losing power in Middlesex and Union counties on Saturday afternoon; all Union County customers were restored on Saturday evening.
The Edison Township Office of Emergency Management tweeted on Saturday afternoon that an "electrical substation situation" is the cause of outages for south end businesses and residences and PSE&G is working on restoration.
Four PSE&G employees were hospitalized on Saturday while making repairs at the Lehigh Avenue substation in Union according to the Star-Ledger. One person remains hospitalized but no injury remains life threatening.
Jersey Shore Hurricane News posted a contributor photo of the Edison fire on Saturday afternoon.
MORE COVERAGE:
- Four PSE&G workers suffer burns while attempting to restore power at substation / Star-Ledger
- 3,800 still without power in Highland Park, parts of Edison / MyCentralJersey.com