Power outage reported in Hollywood, cause not yet confirmed

What happened

A power outage affected the Hollywood neighbourhood of Los Angeles on a Wednesday in April 2017, leaving the Paramount Pictures studio lot without power for at least a few hours. A Paramount spokesperson confirmed the outage affected a wider part of Hollywood, not only the lot. Power to the lot was fully restored at around 5:30 p.m. Pacific time. Many lot employees had already left for the day after a text alert service said studio officials had no information on when power would return.

Social media reports said an electric transformer had exploded in the area. The article presents this as alleged and it has not been confirmed. A nearby gym was also left in the dark. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power did not immediately return a request for comment, although it told the public on social media that a crew was on its way to the area.

Contributing factors

Not reported by the source. Social media reports attributed the outage to an electric transformer explosion, but neither the utility nor the studio confirmed this in the article.

Lessons learned

1. Organisations on shared distribution networks should keep a documented outage communication plan so that staff receive restoration information from a reliable source.
2. Operators of critical sites should identify which loads depend on a single utility connection and consider whether backup power is needed for essential equipment.
3. Utilities should publish confirmed status updates promptly, because unverified reports of equipment failure can spread before the cause is known.

More lessons on outages, backup supply and restoration, electrical protection and isolation, spacing, layout and fire spread, from every incident on the register.

Source

thewrap.com