Unplanned power outage blamed on transmission line issue; nearly 13,000 western New Brunswick customers and 5,500 homes and businesses in Houlton, Maine, impacted
Over 18,000 homes and businesses in western New Brunswick and northern Maine have been without power since shortly after 9:30 a.m Friday morning.
NB Power spokesperson Dominique Couture says this is a transmission outage.
“Crews are currently investigating the cause to efficiently and safely restore power to impacted customers,” she said in an e-mail.
NB Power supplies electricity to Houlton Water, a power service provider for the town of Houlton, Maine and surrounding areas.
Greg Sherman is Houlton Water’s General manager.
“What we’ve been told and what we are telling customers is that there are two ‘138 lines’ west of us. One line feeds the Woodstock terminal in Jacksonville. And that there happened to be a fault on that line so NB Power has sent men out to switch the lines and investigate.”
While NB Power has not given an estimated restore time, the Houlton Water Company Facebook page says NB Power has indicated the power will be restored before 11 a.m.
The outage comes in the middle of a stretch of dangerously hot weather affecting the region. Environment Canada says temperatures are expected to reach the mid 30s with a humidex of up to 40 throughout the valley, lasting until Sunday.
