Power Outages Hit U.S. Capitol, White House, State Department + More

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A reported explosion at a Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative (SMECO) power facility created power outages across Washington, D.C., Tuesday, including at the White House, the State Department, the U.S. Capitol, and the Justice Department as well as at several Metro stations, according to several news reports.

The explosion reportedly took place at the SMECO (Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative) power facility.

Here’s what happened, according to SMECO:

“Shortly before 1 p.m. a Pepco 230-kilovolt (kV) transmission conductor located at SMECO’s Ryceville switching station in Charles County broke free from its support structure and fell to the ground (see photo above). This failure resulted in the loss of supply to SMECO’s Ryceville and Hewitt Road stations. The Pepco supply to the Morgantown and Chalk Point interconnect locations was also interrupted.

No SMECO equipment was damaged and all protective devices operated correctly to isolate SMECO equipment from the Pepco fault.

SMECO has rerouted power through our 230-kV system in Calvert and St. Mary’s County to restore service. All SMECO customers affected by this event were restored by 2 p.m.”

A Charles County, Md. fire department spokesman told radio station WNEW that both PEPCO and SMECO worked together to fix the problem where the reported explosion occurred, at a switching station in Hughesville, Md. About 22,000 homes were without power in southern Maryland.

The University of Maryland in College Park, Md., closed at 2 p.m. due to the power outage, its president said, in a message posted to Twitter.

A PEPCO power outage map at 2:35 p.m. showed 1,310 without power in Washington, D.C. The first outage was reported at about 12:23 p.m. by PEPCO, according to its outage map.

The White House was reportedly without power only briefly for 5-10 seconds, according to reporters in the briefing room, who posted messages on social media. CBS reporter Mark Knoller reported that the White House was briefly on backup generator power but is now back up on regular power.

The U.S. Capitol experienced a power outage, went to backup generators and by about 1:45 p.m., was back on regular power, a spokeswoman told CNBC.

Metro notes that all trains are powered and running Tuesday afternoon, but noted that riders should “use caution” if they see stations without lights on. Stations still using backup power as of about 2:15 p.m. were: Anacostia, Eastern Market, Potomac Ave, NoMa, Rhode Is Ave, PG Plz, Benning Rd, Navy Yard, Capitol Hghts.

NBC Washington reports that museums were evacuated and some 13 Metro stations in all were initially affected by the outages.

SMECO is a customer-owned electric cooperative providing electricity to over 152,000 services in southern Prince George’s County, and in Charles County, St. Mary’s County, and all but the northeast portion of Calvert County.

PHOTOS: U.S. Capitol; SMECO headquarters in Maryland; a Pepco transmission conductor located at SMECO’s Ryceville switching station in Charles County broke free from its support structure and fell to the ground. Photo courtesy of SMECO