Cause of Power Outage Identified

A power outage stretching through downtown Salem on Wednesday morning was due to an underground cable fault just outside of the Margin Street substation, according to National Grid.

Company spokesman Jake Navarro said at 11:40 a.m. that everyone should have power back within 20-30 minutes.

Initially, about 2,500 electric customers were without power starting at 10 a.m. Later, National Grid said the number was closer to 2,700 customers.

The affected area included Bridge Street Neck, Collins Cove and Salem Willows, running down Essex Street past Salem Common and through the heart of downtown. The outage affected about 14 percent of the electric customers in Salem.