Almost 20,000 homes and businesses lost power this morning at 11.24am after a power supply fault was reported across large areas of central Salford.
The power cut hit 19,534 business and residential properties in the Pendleton, Salford Quays, Chapel Wharf and Frederick Road areas.
Electricity North West, which is responsible for operating and maintaining the electricity distribution network in Salford, said it had received plenty of calls about the power outage.
It could not give a definitive reason for the brief disruption, which was restored automatically via their control room systems.
A disgruntled tenant from Great Cheetham Street, Lower Broughton explained: “It only went off for a second but all the electricity in the house went off and caused a few house alarms to go off.”
On Salford precinct, shoppers report that it could take up to an hour and a half for computers and tills to come back online.
Engineers are now investigating what caused the power ‘brown out’, described as “an intentional or unintentional drop in voltage in an electrical power supply system.”
Intentional brownouts are normally used for load reduction in an emergency.
Main image via geolocation.ws
