Power Outages Hit State College Area for Second Consecutive Day

Thousands of people in the State College area lost power early Tuesday evening, marking the second consecutive day of outages in the Centre Region amid the summer’s first heat wave.

Power had been restored to most affected locations as of 8 p.m. Tuesday, according to the West Penn Power website. An hour earlier, more than 2,000 West Penn Power customers in Centre County were experiencing outages — with most occurring in the areas of Science Park Road, Blue Course Drive and West College Avenue area in Ferguson Township and State College Borough.

According to the West Penn Power outages map, 1,523 homes and businesses in Ferguson Township and 480 in State College were without power. A handful of other outages were scattered around the county.

A West Penn Power spokesperson did not immediately have information about the cause of the outage on Tuesday night.

Ferguson Township also experienced the bulk of outages on Monday.

More than 5,000 West Penn customers lost power on Monday afternoon, with more than 4,300 of those occurring in Ferguson Township. A transformer blew just before 3 p.m. Monday on West College Avenue, and a West Penn spokesperson said the problem originated at the west side substation near Pine Grove Mills.

Affected locations on Monday were switched to another substation as crews investigated the root cause, and power had been restored by early evening.

Outdoor temperatures on both Monday and Tuesday throughout Centre County were in the 90s with high humidity.

“Our approach, especially in the heat, is to get customers back on as quickly as possible,” the spokesperson said on Monday.

This story will be updated.