UPDATED: Afternoon Power Outage Leaves 8,000 Customers in Dark

UPDATE: Tuesday, 3:25 p.m.:

PECO spokesperson Greg Smore said at 3:30 p.m. all power has been restored to customers. The exact cause of the equipment issue is still being investigated.

UPDATE: Tuesday, 2:51 p.m.:

Residents in parts of Bensalem, Penndel and Middletown are reporting power has been restored.

Original Story:

The last thing anyone in Lower Bucks County expected Tuesday afternoon was a large power outage – but it happened. As of 2 p.m., more than 8,000 customers were in the dark, according to PECO.

The cause of the outage is not yet known, but crews know it started at a Bensalem area substation.

PECO spokesperson Greg Smore said power will be restored in the next few hours. He said crews are working at the substation to fix the problem and on the streets to reroute power from substations that are on the grid.

Lights went dark shortly after 1 p.m. in parts of Bensalem, Bristol Township, Hulmeville, Middletown, Penndel and Langhorne.

The outage caused problems at several intersections where traffic lights are dark. Officials say those intersections should be treated as if there was a four-way stop sign there.

A “glitch” caused the online PECO outage map to double count some customers without power and showed over 21,000 in the dark, Smore said.

The most recent power outage comes just weeks after storms left parts of the area in the dark for days.

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