Government

‘Backward wiring’ blamed for August power outage in Greenport

Greenport Village Hall.
Greenport Village Hall.

Greenport Village officials said “backward wiring” was to blame for an August power outage that left some residents without power for more than 11 hours.

“What we found was that the transformer that feeds into the relay switch gear was wired backward,” village administrator Paul Pallas said during Monday’s meeting. 

The village plans to conduct a complete review of its still-delayed $5.8 million electric plant updates, Mr. Pallas said before the meeting.

Although Mr. Pallas told the public and the New York Power Authority that the blackout had nothing to do with the multimillion dollar project, village officials said they would conduct a full review of its system prior to the end of the year.

No time-frame has been set yet, Mr. Pallas said.

“It needs to be done because of the events that happen,” he said prior to the meeting. “I want to make sure all the relays, not just the new ones but the older ones, all mesh together well. The typical way that is done is to do this type of study.”

NYPA officials did not return calls for comment.

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