One day after the Village of Greenport was left in the dark after a power outage knocked out electricity across the board, village officials issued a press release to explain what they say happened.
The outage, the release stated, occurred at 7:30 a.m. when, while in the process of performing “normal switching operations, to allow for the testing of circuit breakers, a relay caused both of the two sub-stations at the power plant to trip off-line”.
The release also stated that the situation was not one that could be resolved via use of a generator, “as this was not a generation issue. We were, in fact, able to energize both sub-stations early in the resolution process”.
But, the release continued, “While attempting to restore service, it was discovered that a low-voltage control fuse had also tripped. This prevented one of our sub-stations from coming back online. Once that was rectified, one of the sub-stations was re-energized, and we were able to restore service to four of our six circuits. During the restoration of the two remaining circuits, it was discovered that the distribution relay associated with these two circuits, in the older section of our sub-stations, were set at a level that would preclude the entire load being restored at the same time. Consequently, we were required to disconnect multiple distribution transformers to ensure that partial loads could be restored.”‘
Once that was done, the dozens of disconnected transformers were each re-connected, manually, one at a time, the release said. “This is an arduous and time-consuming process, but it is the only possible way to ensure the restoration of service in a safe and reliable manner.”
During the restoration process, the decision was made to tie together the two remaining circuits, under the assumption that a section of one circuit was not functioning properly, the release stated.
“Please note that, at some point, we will need to restore the entire system to its normal state, which may require brief, pre-planned outages,” the statement read. Village officials also thanked customers for their patience and apologized for any inconvenience..
The entire village, village resident John Mantzopolous said, had been affected Thursday morning. Businesses such as 7-Eleven were closed, and traffic lights were out, he said.
“People were coming out to see if it was widespread or just in their isolated homes,” he said.
At Eastern Long Island Hospital, staff worked to keep operations running smoothly while power was intermittent. “We’re doing okay,” said Pat Pifpisa, vice president of patient care services. “We kept our generator on, just to be safe, and are running it now simultaneously with the power, which is back on at the moment. It has gone on and off.”
Mayor David Nyce did not return calls for comment.
