PEI

Lightning cause of massive P.E.I. power outage

Maritime Electric has restored power to all of its customers after an overnight outage that knocked out service to most of eastern P.E.I.

Power went out for more than 13,000 customers overnight

View of the Maritime Electric West Royalty substation, with sign.
There are reports the power went out around midnight. (Stephanie vanKampen/CBC)

Maritime Electric has restored power after an outage that knocked out service to most of eastern P.E.I.

At 6 a.m., the utility was reporting more than 13,000 customers in eastern P.E.I. were without power. The outages stretched from Charlottetown to East Point and down to Murray River.

Maritime Electric says the cause of the outage was equipment damaged by lightning, but it does not know when the damage occurred.

The utility says the problem was reported about 3 a.m.

About 10,000 customers had been restored by around 6:30 a.m. and all were back on by 9:30 a.m.

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With files from Stephanie Kelly