(March 2, 2011) - The area served by Substation 4 in the northern part of downtown has been restored following a power outage that was first reported last evening at about 6 p.m. Customers were restored around midnight after MLGW was able to reroute power, but experienced a second outage this morning from about 8 a.m. until 9:10 a.m. after circuits used in the switch apparently were overloaded. The circuits were re-energized with a stronger feed in order to restore power this morning while permanent repairs are being made to the substation. The substation should return to normal operations within the next few hours provided no unforeseen damage or problems are discovered.

The initial cause of the outage appears to be a lightning arrestor that blew at Substation 4 at 67 Jackson Ave. This in turn damaged other equipment. A lighting arrestor is a device used to protect substations from lightning damage. The outage affected commercial customers within the boundaries of Monroe on the south, Auction on the north and Danny Thomas on the East.

Businesses affected included:

• 201 Poplar
• One Commerce Square
• Jefferson Plaza
• First Tennessee Bank
• Convention Center
• Marriott