Equipment failure cuts power for 3,500 in Meredith on Wednesday

MEREDITH — Customers in the village and areas off Route 104 experienced multiple power outages on Wednesday, which affected thousands of people served by New Hampshire Electric Cooperative. A spokesperson attributed the first outage to equipment failure, and were investigating the cause of a second outage in the evening.

According to Colin Manning, director of communications and government relations for NHEC, there was a “brief outage” in Meredith at 10:39 a.m. on Jan. 28, impacting about 3,500 members. That is about 62% of the Meredith customers NHEC serves.

“Crews were immediately dispatched and power was restored about 45 minutes later,” Manning said. “We understand how difficult it is to be without power in this cold snap, so we’re pleased our crews were about to act quickly in restoring power.”

Manning said a piece of equipment on one of the substations protecting against power surges failed.

"Thankfully, crews were able to quickly address it," Manning said.

Meredith Police confirmed there was no major event the department responded to that would have caused the outage.

“There was no car accident or explosion that caused it,” said Lt. Phil McLaughlin

McLaughlin said, at 2 p.m., a “good portion” of the town was without power, due to an issue NHEC “quickly recognized and addressed.”

The police station did not lose power, and he said the department was notified by residents calling in with questions. The fire station did experience a power surge, but did not lose power.

Just after noon on Wednesday, the Meredith Police Association posted an alert on Facebook, stating “Townwide power outage- Traffic Advisory.” The post stated the department was aware of the outage that impacted the downtown and surrounding locations off Route 104.

The Meredith Police Association stated that NHEC was notified and working to identify the cause and restoring power “as quickly as possible.”

Several traffic lights were not operational, and police stressed using extra caution while driving.

“Treat all intersections with inoperative traffic signals as four-way stops,” the post read.

Meredith Police were assisting with traffic, but the post stated “manpower limitations” did not allow for someone at each affected intersection.

Shortly after the initial post, Meredith Police Association confirmed the traffic lights were working again.

Town business was not affected by the power outage, according to Town Manager Judie Milner.

“We did not lose power at Town Hall or the town hall annex today,” Milner said Wednesday. “I heard the Humiston Building, which is further down Main Street from us toward Laconia, which houses the superintendent of schools and Lakes Region Planning Commission, was without power, but I don’t know why.”

The Inter-Lakes administrative office, at 103 Main St. in the Humiston Building, confirmed the office was without power for about 40 minutes, starting at 10:30 a.m. However, the power outage did not affect Inter-Lakes Elementary School nor Inter-Lakes Middle/High School.

As of 2:30 p.m., there were no reported outages by NHEC in the town of Meredith. However, there were 122 outages reported in Alton, with 87 on Rattlesnake Island.

Manning said the Alton outage was due to the winter storm, during which they had a high volume of outages.

“Since it is an island, conditions need to be safe before we can get out there,” Manning said. “It’s common in the winter season.”

After power was initially restored, Manning said at 5 p.m. there was another outage affecting much of the town. The outage map said 2,728 customers were without power, which is just under half of those served in Meredith.

The cause of the second outage was not immediately clear, but Manning said Wednesday late afternoon crews were currently investigating, and working on restoring power.