Electricity restored a little over two hours later
CARIBOU, Maine — Over 1,200 Emera Maine customers in Caribou experienced a two-hour power outage last week. While there was speculation that it may have been a result of extensive road work taking place in the city, the May 24, 2016, outage was caused by a broken insulator.
“An insulator is often made of porcelain or glass, and is maybe the size of a softball or bigger,” explained Emera Maine Communication Specialist Bob Potts. “Water can get inside, meaning it can turn to ice, melt, and turn back to ice, which results in damage. This is especially true when you’re looking at a place like Caribou with such extreme climate changes.”
Potts added that calls from customers experiencing the outage started around 11:30 a.m. and power was back on at 1:45 p.m.
Outages don’t normally last over two hours, but in this case the insulator was located in a hard to reach right of way, resulting in a longer repair time.
“We appreciate our customers’ patience,” Potts said. “Sometimes people like to know what the problem is right away, but we can only truly know once our crew gets out there to assess the situation. We recognize that it’s never convenient to lose power, especially on a day as beautiful as today.”
