Washington D.C. Power Outage Causes Shutdown In Capitol
A power outage in Washington D.C. has affected the bulk of the capitol and a multitude of government offices. Pepco, the electric server for the district, stated that numerous reports of power outages have been coming in for the past hour for “unknown reasons.”
Pepco said the Washington D.C. power outage included 129 “active outages” and has impacted more than 2,000 customer locations – many of which were offices and buildings.
Department of Homeland Security officials are reportedly investigating the Washington D.C. power outage. Federal officials have noted that “at this time” terrorism or other criminal action is not suspected. Some of the metro stations in the capitol are reportedly functioning under emergency lighting. A variety of government offices and public spaces have been evacuated.
An explosion at a southern Maryland facility is currently believed to be the cause of the massive power outage in Washington D.C. The White House daily press briefing was suspended due to the lack of electricity. A daily media news briefing at the State Department was also halted due to the power outage.
The University of Maryland also experienced a campus-wide power outage. If Congress had not been on recess, government activities would have likely continued because the U.S. Capitol complex can operate using a backup generator.
As previously reported by the Inquisitr, the American Society of Civil Engineers handed down a “D+” grade to the power grid in the United States during an infrastructure review in 2013. There are about 5,800 power plants and 450,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines in the U.S., many of them decades old, and a large portion of them connected to one another.
The United States power grid has more blackouts than any other country in the developed world, according to new data that spotlights the country’s aging and unreliable electric system. The data by the Department of Energy (DOE) and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) shows that Americans face more power grid failures lasting at least an hour longer than residents of other developed nations. And it’s getting worse. Going back three decades, the United States grid loses power 285 percent more often than it did in 1984, when record keeping began. The power outages cost businesses in the United States as much as $150 billion per year, according to the Department of Energy.
More video: This is what a State Department briefing is like during a power outage. — @ABC pic.twitter.com/wyj4azSGp7
— Alex Mallin (@alex_mallin) April 7, 2015
.@marieharf having to shine phone light on reporters asking questions here. pic.twitter.com/TF4lJYSsZX
— Alex Mallin (@alex_mallin) April 7, 2015
Check back with the Inquisitr for more details about the Washington D.C. power outage as additional information becomes available.
[Image via: Shutterstock.com]
