HOPE — About 2,000 homes and businesses in northeast Bartholomew County lost electricity Thursday morning.
Crews at Duke Energy first learned there was a problem at the utility’s substation off County Road 600N, west of State Road 9, at 5:57 a.m., utility spokesman Chip Orbin said.
At about 6 a.m., a passerby reported a fire had broken out at the substation, Bartholomew County REMC spokeswoman Marty Lasure said. The substation provides electricity to both Duke and the rural cooperative.
It’s possible a blown fuse resulted in other parts of the Duke-owned substation to become a conductor, sparking the fire that initially left 1,000 REMC members without electricity, Lasure said.
After crews were able to reroute electricity, about 600 REMC member-customers had their power restored by 7:30 a.m., Lasure said. But the remaining 400 had no electricity for up to another three hours, she said.
At 6:06 a.m., Duke Energy sent out text messages explaining that approximately 1,000 of their customers were without power, Orbin said.
Duke originally estimated it could take up to three hours to get the customers back on the grid. But the utility was able to bring in electricity from another circuit and restore power to all impacted customers by 7:47 a.m., Orbin said.
“I’m sure there will be an assessment done because, at some point, we’re going to want to put that substation back in place,” he said.
All homes and businesses who get their electricity through REMC through the substation had their power restored by 10:47 a.m., Lasure said.
