Lights out early for some in Lincoln on Tuesday

[April 11, 2012]  Quite a few Lincoln residents and some businesses were unpleasantly surprised last night when the lights went out. The power outage that began shortly after 9 p.m. primarily affected areas west of Union Street in Lincoln between 9 and 11:30 p.m.

As measures were taken to restore power, other areas were also affected. The Logan County Safety Complex on Pekin Street was put on backup generator power for 30 minutes. Outage site counts varied over time between 2,682 and 3,300 out of 8,454 Ameren customers.

The cause of the primary outage was not identified, though an outage last year was attributed to aging equipment at a nearby substation. Reportedly that station and others have been getting newer equipment.

[LDN]