Squirrel blamed for transformer failure that left 10,000 without power in the US

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Squirrel knocks out power of 14,000 customers in Virginia, USA

Photo : iStock

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

Power was up and running about an hour and 9 minutes later.
Another squirrel was blamed earlier for a power outage affecting 3,000.
A bird flew into a substation in California last month, knocking out power for over 14,000 connections.

Virginia, United States: 10,0000 customers of an electricity company, including at least two schools in Virginia in southeastern US were left without power Wednesday morning after a squirrel came into contact with substation equipment around 8:45 am local time.

“The squirrel got between a circuit breaker and a transformer causing a power surge that made the transformer fail,” Dominion Energy spokeswoman Bonita Billingsley Harris told WVEC-TV.

The surge caused 10,000 customers to lose power who, according to the utility official, included the Kempsville High School and the Fairfield Elementary School.

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Bird blamed for power outage that left 14000 without electricity in California

Bird blamed for power outage that left 14,000 without electricity in California

Harris said the power was restored about an hour and nine minutes later after the company rerouted most of the customers to an alternate circuit.

All the lights are back on in @CityofVaBeach including @KHS_Chiefs & @VBFairfieldES after a squirrel got into the s… t.co/sZHy29Edgh

— ANI (@ANI) Sep 7, 2022

“She added that Dominion has squirrel guards installed at all of its substations, which reduces animal interference thus protecting them and the electrical grid,” 13NewsNow reported.

While it’s understood that the rodent likely didn’t survive the accident, there appears to be no official confirmation on its status.

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Squirrel blamed for massive power outage that left over 3,000 without electricity in US

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In June, another squirrel allegedly knocked out power for at least 3,000 customers in North Carolina after coming into contact with wiring. Administrative services across an entire county were affected that morning after the Buncombe County office temporarily lost electricity.

Last month, yet another power outage, which affected over 14,000 customers of another utility company called San Diego Gas & Electric, was blamed on a bird that struck electrical equipment at a substation in California.

The unidentified bird reportedly flew into the setup in La Mesa, which caused tens of thousands of people to go 90 minutes without electricity.

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