A power outage affected a portion of Washington, D.C., known as Foggy Bottom today. According to WJLA ABC7 News, over 1,000 Pepco (Potomac Electric Power Company) customers were left in the dark for hours because of an issue at the utility's I Street substation. Per the outlet, smoke was coming out of manholes in the 1800 block of H Street NW. Pepco crews were on scene, along with EMS and D.C.Fire.personnel. By early afternoon, the utility said that everyone was back online.
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DCNrwsNow cited "a transformer failure" at the substation as the reason for the power outage.
Pepco's First Statement
The utility made this statement earlier today in
Facebook. "We're responding to a power outage in the Foggy Bottom area following an incident at our I Street Substation. Our crews are on site assessing conditions and working safely and as quickly as possible to restore service. We know outages are disruptive and appreciate your patience as work continues. The cause of the incident remains under investigation, and at this time, there is no indication of foul play. Our focus remains on safely restoring power to our customers.For your safety, please stay clear of work areas. Report an outage or check restoration updates at pepco.com/outage or through the Pepco mobile app.
Update as of 2 pm: All power to impacted customers has been restored."
George Washington University Was Widely Affected
Per Hoodline, the power failure was felt extensively at George Washington University, where many buildings were without electricity. According to the outlet, "The disruption also hit George Washington University's campus hard, with more than 70 residential and academic buildings left without power."
The university's student newspaper, The GW Hatchet, noted that "Foggy Bottom and multiple campus buildings lost power around 9 a.m. Monday, according to a GW Alert, prompting officials to cancel classes for the entire day." Elsewhere in the story, though, it was stated that classes were canceled "until noon," with another update forthcoming before then.
Furthermore, however, The GW Hatchet added, "While officials have canceled all classes for the day, they shared in a GW Alert at 11:37 a.m. that all School of Medicine and Health Sciences and GW Law classes would continue in-person and remotely, along with operations on the University's Arlington, Alexandria and Virginia Science and Technology campuses."
The Outage Had Many Ramifications
The GW Hatchet story mentioned that some students might be having difficulty accessing their dorms. Also, traffic lights were not functioning as usual. Additionally, "Western Market, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund" were without electricity, plus the State Department.
