NStar Transmission Line Work Leads To Widespread Power Outage
WOBURN (CBS) - Homes and businesses in several Massachusetts towns lost power Wednesday afternoon.
NStar employees were working at a transmission line at the Dragon Court substation in the area of Constitution and Commerce Way in Woburn when the power went out.
At the peak of the outage, 15,000 NStar customers in Woburn and Stoneham lost power. Within an hour, crews got that down to about 3,000, and by 4:15 p.m., power was completely restored in Woburn.
But, because power was cut at the transmission line, surrounding towns that have power fed from the line, yet don't use NStar also were affected, including Wilmington (National Grid) and Reading (municipal power).
At around 2 p.m., RMLD, Reading's municipal power company, reported that about 75-percent of the company's coverage area, including Reading, Wilmington and parts of Lynnfield were without power. Hours later, Reading still reported a few hundred scattered outages.
As of 4:15 p.m., most affected customers regained their power.
