BOSTON (WHDH) - High temperatures and demand are believed to be the causes of an equipment failure that left hundreds without power in South Boston on Monday.
An Eversource spokesperson said crews were working to restore power for approximately 545 customers as of 2:30 p.m., after equipment in the area overheated, causing a manhole cover to lift in the process.
It is believed that as many as 1,000 customers were without power at one point, with work still being done late into Monday night.
The Eversource outage map indicated a large outage in the neighborhood was reported around 9 a.m., while several smaller outages were logged between 1-2 p.m.
“This historic heat wave has driven high demand for electricity for nearly a week as people continue to turn up their ACs to stay cool—on top of typical electric use,” Eversource said in a statement. “As the electric system works continuously to meet this high demand in extreme heat—especially over several consecutive days—the equipment can become stressed—causing localized issues and outages.”
Some locals told 7NEWS the day-long outages were more than frustrating, with temperatures in apartments rising above 80 degrees, forcing some to find other places to stay such as hotels.
Several recent outages in the Boston area included an incident in Dorchester that left as many as 19,000 customers without power, while over 800 in Allston lost power due to a planned, overnight outage, meant to make repairs and preempt future outages in the area.
The power provider estimates they have restored power for more than 73,000 customers across the state since the start of the recent heat wave.
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