CHANGE MY LOCATION
Local
California News
Multimedia News
Power outage downtown shuts down office of energy agency, state offices
SEE THE LATEST ON THIS STORY
Related Topics: BALTIMORE
BALTIMORE (Map, News) - A power outage in downtown Baltimore on Tuesday shut down the offices of the very state commission that regulates electricity prices, along with more than a dozen other state agencies, according to state and utility officials.
Linda Foy, spokeswoman for Baltimore Gas and Electric, said a “cable fault” was detected at about 2 a.m. Tuesday in the William Donald Schaefer Building at 6 St. Paul St., forcing the Maryland Public Service Commission and 13 other state agencies to open late.
Foy said the problem was repaired no later than 4:30 a.m. The building was still powerless, however, until about 8 a.m.
The cause of that delay was still unknown as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Department of General Services spokesman Dave Humphrey. Foy said the problem was on the state’s end, attributing it to “customer equipment.”
Because the outage rendered air conditioning units in the building powerless for several hours before the offices were scheduled to open, officials decided not to open the building until temperatures could be restored to the standard level of 72 degrees, Humphrey said.
“Once power was restored, we still needed to keep the building closed because of the elevated temperatures,” he said.
Temperatures in the building were measured at about 86 degrees when power was restored at 8 a.m., he said.
The city issued a Code Red heat alert Monday, and the heat index was expected to be near 100 degrees.
Comments from Examiner Readers
9:02 PM MST on Sun., Feb. 24, 2008 re: "Power outage cost restaurants thousands"
Report as inappropriate
Examiner Reader said:
What about deductibles that the insurance industry charges; I doubt any restaurant recovers squat; just badwill thanks to PG&E. Regulate those sob's.
72 agree | 64 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree