Power outage hits town, disrupts electrical supply at 7 North-East Line MRT stations

Blackouts were reported at several areas in town earlier this afternoon, affecting offices, malls, stores, hotels, and even MRT stations. Seven stations along the North-East Line, to be exact.

Singapore Power (SP) Group confirmed that the electricity supply had been disrupted in parts of Bugis, City Hall, Marina and Somerset at 1:09pm today. According to Channel NewsAsia, there were blackouts reported at Bras Basah Complex, Odeon Towers and Carlton Hotel.

Heavy day at the ofc! The building black out suddenly. No network and power. 😱

— fak3id3ntity (@fak3id3ntity) February 14, 2019

SP Group officers were deployed to the affected areas to rectify the issue, and supply was progressively restored ten minutes later. By 1:21pm, electricity supply was fully reinstated everywhere, except for Carlton Hotel.

Oddly enough, folks who spoke to CNA mentioned that explosions were heard from the hotel. According to the Singapore Civil Defence Force, a fire had broken out in a switch room at Carlton Hotel, but it’s unclear if it was correlated to the power outage across town.

[Fire @ 76 Bras Basah Rd]

SCDF responded to a fire incident at 76 Bras Basah Rd at about 1.15pm. The fire was contained within a switch room and extinguished by SCDF using fire extinguishers. About 1000 persons were evacuated from the building. There were no reported injuries.

— TheLifeSavingForce (@SCDF) February 14, 2019

Seven MRT stations

Commuters along the North-East Line today were certainly alarmed when the lights went out at MRT stations in the afternoon. Potong Pasir, Boon Keng, Dhoby Ghaut, Clarke Quay, Chinatown, Outram Park, and Harbourfront MRT stations had electricity supply affected, but none of the train services were affected. While the lights and escalators weren’t working, the ticket gantry system was, if you were wondering.

The SMRT ticket gantry works even during blackout. https://t.co/EcL06U13bJ

— Darryl Kang (@dk) February 14, 2019

“We apologize for the inconvenience caused and thank the public for their patience and understanding,” noted SP Group, adding that investigations are currently ongoing.