FARMINGTON — Businesses and schools came to a standstill in the Farmington area as a mobile substation failure left 4,000 customers in the dark Monday morning.
A mobile substation being used at the Sturtevant Station on the Farmington Falls Road while Central Maine Power Company replaced a transformer failed for some reason at about 7:55 a.m. Monday, a CMP spokeswoman said.
Repairmen accelerated work to install the new transformer sooner than planned in order to restore power shortly after 11 a.m.
CMP customers in Farmington, including businesses and schools in the downtown and Wilton Road areas, Industry, Temple and a few in New Vineyard and Wilton were affected by the outage, she said.
Traffic lights were out as drivers cautiously made turns downtown. Several stores remained dark and empty and gas pumps were down until the electrical power came back.
Students at Mt. Blue High School were dismissed at noon after plans were started to deal with the extended power failure. Students at Mallett School were transported to Cascade Brook School during the morning then returned to Mallett after the power was restored. Only the high school dismissed students early.
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