01/10/14 NIPSCO experienced an equipment failure Thursday morning beginning at 8:30 at the substation on Lake Avenue in Plymouth. Many customers in the Plymouth area experienced a power glitch that caused a loss of electricity for a few seconds while as many as 1,400 NIPSCO customers in the Culver, Burr Oak, Tyner, Walkerton and some Plymouth customers who were without power for about an hour.
Plymouth Fire Chief Rod Miller said the equipment failure at the substation was like a huge transformer outside where the grid starts. The older piece of equipment exploded causing a fire with lots of black smoke from the burning oil inside the switcher. Firefighters were on the scene for only a short time and used foam to smoother the fire.
Kathleen Zahm from NIPSCO said half of the customers were re-routed almost immediately and the remaining were back on line by 10:50.
