Mount Vernon and Lisbon residents were left in the literal dark Tuesday, Jan. 17, when an unplanned power outage struck uptown Mount Vernon.
According to Tony Paleese,senior communications staff with Alliant Energy, the outage happened at roughly 3:45 p.m., when an equipment failure tripped a nearby circuit breaker. The outage impacted roughly 1,200 customers in both communities.
“Alliant has been performing planned work in the area to underground electrical cables and upgrading equipment,” Paleese said.
In Mount Vernon, the outage primarily hit the uptown businesses and customers to the north of First Street. Establishments like Chameleon’s were unable to serve food, but the bar remained open and served customers by candlelight until the repair was made.
Power in the uptown was out for roughly an hour for the majority of customers, with power restored to all customers by 5:40 p.m.
On Friday morning a similar outage impacted a few customers along Business 30 when a breaker was tripped on a line at 8:17 a.m. Power was restored in that instance in less than 30 minutes.
Alliant also had a planned shutdown beginning at 5 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 24, that was to last a few minutes while crews worked on a needed repair.
“Our goal is to always deliver safe, reliable energy to our customers,” Paleese said. “The ongoing work to strengthen the grid and improve resiliency will result in greater long-term energy security for the customers and communities we serve.”