DTE to Shut Down Substation at 2:30 a.m., Cutting Off 7,500 Customers

DTE Energy will shut down the West Nine Mile substation at 2:30 a.m. Saturday, affecting an additional 5,500 customers in Ferndale, bringing the total homes and businesses without power to 7,500, DTE spokesman Len Singer said.

The power is expected to be out for about six hours.

The reason for the shutdown is that the second generator brought in to alleviate the current outages temporarily is faulty. The first generator placed Friday in east Oak Park was working, but only powering about 300 customers.

Because of the faulty generator, DTE must shut down the substation to repair it. The main issue is a malfunctioned cable that pumps the transformers in the substation with voltage.

Earlier this afternoon, DTE was attempting to locate the trouble spot in the cable. They have found it. "It's at Main Street and Harrison, in Royal Oak," Coulter said.

In order for DTE to fix the cable, its crews have to repair the substation, Coulter said. To do that, he said, DTE has to shut down the substation.

"Basically, what happened (Thursday) night will happen tonight at 2:30 a.m.," Coulter said.

Singer said the boundaries for the shutdown run from Marshall, north to 10 Mile, and from Rosewood east to Woodward. A couple of blocks east of Woodward could also be affected.

The early morning time was chosen to minimize the affect on the businesses downtown, Coulter said.

So the people who were affected by power outages Thursday night will be shut down early Saturday morning, too. 

"If that's not bad enough, the people who don't have power now probably won't have power until Sunday morning," Coulter said.

The cable has to be repaired before DTE can move toward restoring power to those 2,000 customers still without power as of Friday afternoon, Singer said. "We'll work on that all day (Saturday) and look to have it all online by early Sunday morning," he said.

The city is making preparations to keep the police department and dispatch running without a hiccup, Coulter said. Although the , which is operating as a cooling center, is scheduled for a power shut down, DTE will bring in a generator to keep the power going there.

DTE will be making calls to inform customers of what is taking place, Coulter said.