Power Overload Blacks Out Hingham

Areas of Hingham were without electricity Friday during some of the hottest temperatures the town has ever faced.

According to Chief Mark Duff, the areas of Hingham Center, Hingham Square, and North East Hingham lost power at approximately 3:15 p.m. Friday.  Hingham Police Sgt. Steven Dearth said power was restored at 5:23 p.m. that same afternoon.

Paul Heanue, the General Manager of said the power outage was due to an overload of electricity.  The overload was the highest amount of electricity ever used at one time in Hingham, Heanue said.  Employees who have worked at HMLP for over 25 years had never recalled a power overload like the one which occurred Friday and Heanue was forced to drive back from his vacation in Wellfleet to handle the emergency.

According to Heanue, at 2:30 p.m. Friday, the town of Hingham used a total of 58.8 megawatts which exceeded the previous town record of 54.4 megawatts which was recorded on Thursday.  Before last week’s heat wave, the highest number of megawatts ever recorded in Hingham was 53.23 which was posted during last summer. Heanue said if the circuit had not tripped out, the town’s megawatt total would have reached 60 megawatts which is almost 10 percent higher than last year’s previous record.

The overload in electricity used by Hingham residents trying to cool off their homes, was due to the that hit the South Shore area Thursday and Friday. According to Michael Page, owner and forecaster of HinghamWeather.com, the heat peaked on Friday with a historic 101 reading in North Hingham.  This is the highest temperature that North Hingham has ever recorded since records were first kept nearly 60 years ago.

Chief Duff said that power outage did cause several emergencies around town which were all very minor.  Elderly residents were advised by the and to head to the which was used as a powered by a generator.

“This shouldn’t happen again,” Heanue said.

The HMLP is in the process of ordering new circuit wires which will be able to power a larger amount of electricity so another power outage will not occur.