The ongoing heat wave triggered power outages that affected hundreds of Eversource customers over Tuesday and Wednesday.
Just over 100 Peterborough-area customers experienced outages on Tuesday after a melted fuse needed to be replaced, Eversource media relations manager William Hinkle said. About 200 customers connected to the Eversource substation in Swanzey experienced outages when a cross arm started to burn on Tuesday as well, he said, and about 100 customers in the Keene area experienced an outage around 10 a.m. when crews had to replace a transformer on Wednesday.
Although Eversource typically cancels pre-planned repairs that would result in outages during heat waves, the repairs made on Tuesday and Wednesday were necessary to prevent larger, out-of-control outages, Hinkle said.
“It’s certainly safe to say that the heat wave and resulting energy use has created stress on the system,” Hinkle said on Wednesday afternoon. “We’ve had to take steps across our service territory, including the Monadnock region… to avoid any prolonged, uncontrolled larger outages,” he said.
Although Eversource learned that some customers received scam calls referencing “rolling blackouts,” that didn’t happen: rolling blackouts are outages that systematically rotate through the entire distribution region to reduce overall energy demand, whereas Tuesday and Wednesday’s repair-related outages were isolated actions, Hinkle said.
Eversource offers ConnectedSolutions Demand Response programs, where volunteering customers receive incentives to lower their energy use during peak demand hours, Hinkle said.