Seven Belmont Center businesses suffer one day of losses due to power outage

Just after 6 a.m. on Thursday, March 2, an underground transformer failure caused a power outage to several businesses in Belmont Center, including CVS, Belmont Books and Black Bear Café, Trinktisch, Craft Beer Cellar, Cambridgewear, Didriks, and The Wellington among others. 

The transformer failure was caused by road water hitting the transformer over time.  As water from the snow and rain on Leonard Street flowed into the transformer manhole, the salt buildup damaged the bushings on the transformer, causing the failure.  An identical transformer failure occurred on February 21, with the same customers affected by a 3-hour power outage.

Belmont Light crews worked on a temporary fix that included installing a pad-mounted transformer on Leonard Street. The work of cleaning the manhole, installing the new pad-mounted transformer, and reconnecting wires to took until 8:38 p.m. on Thursday, March 2 which is when power was restored to all affected customers.  

Suzanne Schalow, director of operations for Trinktisch and Craft Beer Cellar, said the second power outage in nine days was devastating to their business due to the loss of sales and product.

Due to supply chain issues with sourcing backup transformers, a permanent fix will be completed at a later date.  At that point, the temporary configuration will be removed.