News reports said Tuesday that scattered power outages across Washington have hit the State Department, White House, U.S. Capitol and Justice Department.
The U.S. Capitol was operating with a backup generator, according to a congressional aide cited by Reuters, which also reported some metro stations were running on emergency lighting.
The Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO) has not officially confirmed the cause of the outage, but did confirm that by 1:15 PM local time there were 111 active outages and 2,467 affected customers.
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Washington Posts reporter Aaron C. Davis said that Homeland Security officials believe the cause of the outage was due to an “explosion” at the Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative (SMECO) power facility in southern Maryland.
US government officials told Reuters there were no initial indications that terrorism was involved
RT reports: Power went out at the State Department during the question-and-answer session on Iran nuclear talks.
After the initial confusion, the briefing continued.
Acting State Department spokeswoman, Marie Harf, continued the session under what appeared to be light from a smartphone.
Outage at State seemed to be part of a widespread chain of power failures around Washington, DC, for “unknown” reasons. Reports are coming in from a number of government buildings, metro stations and offices downtown, including the White House and the Department of Justice.
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) reported 13 stations on emergency power
