Upstate experiences Power Outages

Thousands of Upstate residents spent at least part of Monday night’s record cold without power.  Apparently, a Duke Energy transmission line serving Blue Ridge Electric Cooperation substations went down causing the power outage. The substations without service Monday night were the ones at Gap Hill serving Pickens County and the Newry and Corinth substations in Oconee County. Most of the Golden Corner outages occurred around Lake Keowee and Keowee Key areas.  Duke Energy reported about 4,000 without power in Oconee County and another 2,500 in Pickens County.  Blue Ridge Electric reported 5,951 customers in Oconee and Pickens counties lost power for about an hour.  Blue Ridge Electric Cooperation customers east and south of Seneca report their power has been restored. Crews with Duke Energy immediately went to work repairing the line, but due to the extreme cold, service restoration is described as “troublesome”.