Outage

Historic Annapolis got a taste of life in the candle-lighted colonial era yesterday when a power outage plunged the downtown business district into darkness for more than 90 minutes soon after lunch yesterday."

Strong winds knocked out power early yesterday to about 20,000 customers across Maryland, including more than 10,000 households in portions of Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties. However, service had largely been restored by early evening. The power outage affected several state government agencies, closed a handful of Anne Arundel schools and disrupted businesses in Annapolis. Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. reported on its Web site that only three Anne Arundel customers were still without power at 8 p.m., while 52 were without service in neighboring Prince George's County.

It became a dark Valentine's Day in Annapolis - some lovers' dinners canceled, motorists annoyed and legislative hearings disrupted - as the power went out for about 10,000 customers of the Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. yesterday. BGE blamed an equipment malfunction for the 4 p.m. surprise that complicated rush-hour traffic and consequently delayed crews from reaching the problem site at the utility's Cedar Park substation. Power had been restored to about 90 percent of those affected within two hours - and to all customers by 7 p.m. - said BGE spokeswoman Linda Foy. But restaurateurs faced with packed reservation books said the outage was long enough to delay preparations for a busy night of romantic dinners.

Two events that unfolded at the Baltimore Arena last night were all too predictable.The Washington Bullets found a way to blow a fourth-quarter lead and lose their ninth straight game, 99-97, to the Detroit Pistons, and the 30-year-old arena suffered a power outage in the final eight minutes.A bank of lights on the west side of the arena short-circuited this time, but the teams elected to continue to play with less wattage available.It seemed like a good decision by the Bullets when they gained an 85-76 lead with a little more than four minutes left.

A power outage in Westminster forced state and city police stations to use emergency generators and disrupted service to 384 homes for about 45 minutes early yesterday.At a Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. substation on John Street near Cranberry Mall, a device that joins underground electric cables with overhead wires stopped working about 2 a.m., causing the outage, said Kathleen Nolan, a BGE spokeswoman.'Sparks flying'"One of our troopers drove by there and said he saw sparks flying and smoke coming out," said Sgt. Keith Papi of the state police Westminster barracks.

It became a dark Valentine's Day in Annapolis -- some lovers' dinners canceled, motorists annoyed and legislative hearings disrupted -- as the power went out for about 10,000 customers of the Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. yesterday. BGE blamed an equipment malfunction for the 4 p.m. outage that complicated afternoon-rush traffic and consequently delayed crews from reaching the problem site at the utility's Cedar Park substation. Power was restored to about 90 percent of those affected within two hours, said BGE spokeswoman Linda Foy, and to all customers by 7 p.m. But restaurateurs faced with packed reservation books said the outage was long enough to delay preparations for a busy night of romantic dinners.

Officials at Pimlico Race Course and the Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. remained mystified yesterday as to the cause of the power outage that marred Saturday's running of the 123rd Preakness Stakes.As track officials continued to assess the financial and intangible damage done by the outage, they said they would meet with BGE officials this week to search for ways to avoid a repeat of Saturday's crippling electrical malfunction."I want to understand exactly why this happened and whether BGE can do anything to minimize the likelihood of it happening again," said Joseph A. De Francis, majority owner of Pimlico and Laurel Park.

Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. officials told state energy regulators Thursday that major changes to the electricity grid, including burying some power lines and more aggressively trimming trees, are needed to prevent long-term outages like the one that followed the June 29 derecho. "A part of the solution has to be having less damage to repair," CEO Kenneth W. DeFontes Jr. said at a Maryland Public Service Commission hearing on utilities' response to the storm. "Undergrounding selectively has to be part of the solution.

Electrical power reappeared in parts of eight weary northern states yesterday, gradually undoing some of the nation's far-reaching blackout but leaving behind a tangled aftermath of failing water systems, stranded travelers and heightened worries about the condition of the nation's rickety power grid. Millions of Americans and Canadians from Michigan to New England remained in muggy darkness for a second day, as government and utility officials struggled to understand and reverse the vast power collapse that rippled across a 9,300-square-mile area in less than 10 seconds Thursday.

Isabel arrived, and the lights went out in Maryland. After Hurricane Isabel left more than 1 million customers throughout Maryland without power, residents and utilities began yesterday the arduous task of coping with what officials described as the worst electrical outage in the state's history. BGE and Pepco, which serve the Baltimore and Washington areas, had hundreds of crews working 12- and 16-hour shifts to repair damaged power lines and substations. In some areas, life seemed to be at a near-standstill.