Power surge knocks out electrical service across parts of D.C.

Washington Post – by Aaron C. Davis and Julie Zauzmer

A power surge temporarily knocked out power to the White House, State Department and wide swaths of the nation’s capital and its Maryland suburbs early Tuesday afternoon.

D.C. homeland security officials, utility providers and law enforcement officers in Charles County, Md., said a fire or explosion at a electrical facility in Southern Maryland appeared to be the source of the surge.  

The incident left passengers in darkened underground Metro stations, halted elevators in office buildings and forced the entire University of Maryland campus in College Park to close early as it remained unclear when power would be restored to some parts of the region.

The surge also triggered dozens of federal buildings and government facilities to flip over to emergency backup generators, and, coming in the nation’s capital, where tight security precautions are routine out of fears of terrorism, left many residents jittery until the source of the failure began to emerge.

By 2:30 p.m., homeland security officials, both locally and nationally said it appeared that terrorism was not an issue.

“Early indications are that there is no apparent link to terrorism,” a U.S. official said.

Chris T. Geldart, director of the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, characterized the incident as a broad power surge that originated at an electrical facility in southern Maryland.

He said any District facility with a critical operations center flipped over to emergency backup power. That appeared to include the White House, State Department and many District offices. The Wilson Building, which houses the offices of the mayor and D.C. Council, was temporarily evacuated until backup power kicked on.

President Obama was in the Oval Office during the incident, but White House spokesman Josh earnest said there was no sense inside there that there was any problem.

Some White House staff offices at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building were affected. Earnest said it was not clear how many offices in West Wing were affected.

Several Metro stations remained on backup generation, some downtown D.C. thoroughfares were clogged as traffic lights remained on the blink and the University of Maryland campus at College Park closed at 2 p.m. Outside some downtown restaurants and offices, crowds lingered outside darkened buildings while others closed early.

Diane Richardson, a spokeswoman for the Charles County Sheriff’s Department, said the incident appeared to begin at an electrical facility off of Ryceville Road near Newburg, Md.

The Newburg Volunteer Rescue Squad & Fire Department & Auxiliary responded to a report of a fire and explosion at a “transfer station” in the area, an official said. When they arrived, they found no fire, though.

Tom Dennison a spokesman with SMECO, an electric distribution cooperative that serves parts of the District’s Maryland suburbs, said the incident began when there was a failure on a 230,000-volt line operated by Pepco.

The failure on that line cascaded through the system, Dennison said.

In a statement, Pepco said “we experienced a dip in voltage in the Washington D.C. area. This was caused by an issue with a transmission line. There was never a loss of permanent supply of electricity to customers. “

Richardson said both Pepco and SMECO operate at the facility off Ryceville Road, and officials appeared to be investigating if the incident involved a Pepco feeder line.

Pepco is the District’s main power supplier.

Nicole Chapple, a spokeswoman for the D.C. homeland security agency, said Pepco told the city that it was working to bring its electrical grid back up to normal strength.

Reports indicated outages at the Justice Department, State Department and Smithsonian museums. A State Department spokesman said that essential functions had not been interrupted. As of about 1:20 p.m., power was on at the White House, Executive Office Building and Department of Homeland Security.

Metro reported that 13 stations were operating on backup power, but train service was normal. Some elevators and escalators weren’t in operation.

The University of Maryland in College Park also reported several people were stuck on elevators.

Mark Brady, Prince George’s County fire department spokesman, said that firefighters were getting the people out of the elevators.

Pepco did not respond to a request for information.

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