According to Penelec Area Manager John Shimko, the first outage was reported around 8:50 p.m. Multiple circuits between Philipsburg and Snow Shoe serving about 8,300 customers were affected. Crews discovered damaged equipment at an oil switch near Kylertown. Manual switching was required to return many of the affected customers to service while repairs were being made to the affected equipment. The final 250 customers were returned to service following repairs at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Unrelated to that outage were two additional interruptions that occurred overnight, affecting about 2,300 customers in the area south and west of Madera. At approximately 11:40 p.m. customers in the Flinton, Coalport and Fallentimber areas experienced an interruption due to a line failure. Crews sectionalized the line and made final repairs at approximately 6:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Penelec customers across parts of Clearfield and Northern Blair Counties experienced flicking lights overnight as well. Crews are continuing to patrol the main transmission line between Philipsburg and Tyrone to determine if there are any other issues.
Penelec reminds customers to treat all downed wires as energized and dangerous. Do not approach or try to move downed wires. Please call 1-888-LIGHTSS (1-888-478-8465) to report downed wires and power outages.