In a press statement released on its website today, Entergy New Orleans announced the cause of the now infamous Super Bowl 47 blackout which caused half of the Superdome stadium to be without lights.
Here is the statement:
New Orleans, La. – Entergy New Orleans, Inc. announced today that it has traced the cause of Sunday’s outage to an electrical relay device.
The device was specifically installed to protect the Mercedes-Benz Superdome equipment in the event of a cable failure between the switchgear and the stadium.
While the relay functioned without issue during a number of high-profile events – including the New Orleans Bowl, the New Orleans Saints–Carolina Panthers game, and the Sugar Bowl – during Sunday’s game, the relay device triggered, signaling a switch to open when it should not have, causing the partial outage.
This device has since been removed from service and new replacement equipment is being evaluated.
“While some further analysis remains, we believe we have identified and remedied the cause of the power outage and regret the interruption that occurred during what was a showcase event for the city and state,” said Charles Rice, president and chief executive officer of Entergy New Orleans.
Entergy New Orleans, Inc. is an electric and gas utility serving Orleans Parish and is a subsidiary of Entergy Corporation. The company provides electricity to more than 160,000 customers and natural gas to more than 100,000 customers in Orleans Parish.
The Baltimore Ravens ultimately won the game on Sunday but its lead had been whittled down by San Francisco 49ers after the game had resumed.
