Suddenly, lights went out all over Celina

More than 6,100 Dayton Power & Light customers in Mercer and Auglaize counties were left without power on Tuesday afternoon, company spokeswoman Mary Ann Kabel said.

Also, DP&L moved to undertake emergency maintenance to a substation feeding Celina, leading to a power outage between 9 p.m. and 10:20 p.m. in Celina on New Year's Eve. The emergency work was unrelated to area blackouts, Kabel said.

"Tuesday's high winds caused transmission lines between our Lake and Cooper substations to gallop, causing the outages in Mercer and Auglaize counties. Crews were able to respond quickly and restore power to customers," Kabel said, noting that most of the outages struck Mercer County.

At roughly 4 p.m. more than 6,000 outages were reported in Mercer County and 82 in Auglaize County, the spokesperson said. By 7 p.m. most of the power had been restored.

Celina officials at about 3:45 p.m. were bracing for a forthcoming power outage so DP&L officials could carry out emergency maintenance to fix a switch in the substation that feeds the city.

"Celina is going to have an emergency power outage later this evening for a maximum of 1.5 hours while DP&L bypasses a failing switch in their Sugar Street substation that feeds Celina," mayor Jeff Hazel reported on Tuesday afternoon. "Our entire service area will be out."

Anticipating the coming outage, Celina Fire Department personnel set up generators at traffic lights, fire chief Doug Wolters told the newspaper.

DP&L officials pushed back the emergency maintenance from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the request of Hazel, who thought the outage would be less disruptive to citizens and businesses at the later hour, Kabel said.

"The need to conduct emergency maintenance in Celina was found (Tuesday) afternoon," she said. "DP&L coordinated with city officials to inform them of the urgency of the situation and to schedule the maintenance at a time that would be less impactful to customers and local businesses."

DP&L officials acknowledged the inconvenient timing of a power outage on a holiday evening with cold temperatures and apologized for the emergency action.

"However, delaying the work could potentially cause further system issues and inconvenience for customers," according to a DP&L news release. "This repair will strengthen the system and reduce unplanned outages going forward."

Hazel noted the city's system is sound and that city officials were not cutting the feed. He said the switch had been failing for some time.

In a text exchange with city officials, Hazel said a DP&L engineer at 2:30 p.m. indicated repair was necessary.

"They had originally agreed this past fall to wait (to replace) until the spring when it was warmer," Hazel told the newspaper. "Regrettably, the switch itself has almost burned through. DP&L is making a bypass strap to go around the faulty switch until they can replace it this spring."

Celina's planned outage lasted roughly one hour and 15 minutes, Hazel said Wednesday afternoon. The switch that had been replaced had been smoking and sparking when crews arrived, he continued, noting that DP&L workers had their work cut out for them Tuesday night. Multiple other communities, including Coldwater, New Bremen and St. Henry also experienced outages due to other damage, he said.

The many outages likely had an effect on several residents' New Year's Eve plans. Judy Hellwarth told the newspaper the power had gone out right at the end of her daughter's wedding service in Montezuma. She was unsure how the post-wedding pictures would turn out due to the lighting. When attendees moved to the Mercer County Fairgrounds in Celina for the reception, the bartenders told them they would be losing power at 9 p.m.

Luckily, Hellwarth said, the reception area was already largely decorated with candles, and some extra flood and emergency lights had been brought in. The food had also been prepared, and the DJ had the foresight to bring a back-up power source as well, helping to keep the party going.

The outage could've been more of an issue, Hellwarth said, but her daughter, Cami Rammel, is laid back. Everyone at the wedding was understanding of the circumstances and people were able to laugh it off. If nothing else, the outage made the wedding memorable.

- Staff writer Sydney Albert contributed to this report.