Power restored after overnight outage affects 7,000 customers

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Widespread outages left many residents in New Hanover and Brunswick counties without power through the night and into the early morning hours.

Duke Energy Progress Spokesperson Dave Scanzoni says they are still investigating what caused a transformer failure at a substation on Battleship Road. Scanzoni says it took about four hours for them to re-route power from other lines to the 7,000 customers affected.

“We have an ongoing and very robust maintenance program, but even in that situation certain pieces of equipment can fail occasionally just like on your vehicle and so forth,” Scanzoni said. “Even if you keep it well maintained, something can go out. The key there is to have a quick response time as we did.”

While they are repairing the transformer, Scanzoni says customers are receiving power from other lines. Officials say they do not anticipate any further outages due to the repairs.

The outages started around 3:30 a.m. Thursday, and lasted through nearly 7 a.m., according to the latest outage map information for estimated restoration time.