Residents and businesses in the City of Bradford experienced some power outages Monday and into Tuesday.
Folks were reporting power outages at Tops, traffic lights near Main and Mechanic streets and residences downtown and toward Bradford Area High School.
Penelec spokesman Todd Meyers said, “We were getting some reports of a buzzing noise in wires along East Corydon Street. Our crews found three broken spacers on a power line there.”
Meyers noted a spacer is a piece of equipment, often made of clear plastic and looking a little like a “ninja’s throwing star,” used to separate three phases of wire from one another. The wires coming into contact could cause an outage or a partial power outage, Meyers said.
Crews identified the broken spacers at about 1:15 p.m. Monday and then opened fuses to de-energize the system so the spacers could be safely replaced — preventing further damage to equipment. The repairs disrupted service to 103 customers, Meyers said, adding that most were back in service in just more than an hour.
He explained that three-phase distribution wire typically serves busier areas with businesses that require more electricity to run elevators, heating and cooling equipment, pumps and motors and the like.
“On most three-phase lines, the three wires are positioned side by side atop wide cross arms at the top of the pole,” Meyers shared. “Sometimes there is not enough room for a crossarm so the spacers are used to separate the wires instead.”
Meyers said the only other outage reported affected four customers in the 100 block of Winter Street from 7:30 p.m. to about 11:30 p.m. A tree limb off of Penelec’s right-of-way contacted a wire and tree crews had to conduct some trimming before the line could be re-energized.
