The City Council agreed today to look into the environmental and safety issues related to plans for at least two industrial-sized electricity-storage plants, one on the aptly named Electric Avenue in Brighton, the other on a wooded hill behind the Stop & Shop mall on American Legion Highway on the Roslindale/Hyde Park meet that was most recently in the news for being the summer home of Moodini the Steer. Read more.
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today a state energy board properly approved Eversource's plans for a substation on Condor Street in East Boston. Read more.
The two outages that left part of Roslindale without lights or air conditioning yesterday were caused by "an underground cable fault" underneath Belgrade Avenue, an Eversource spokesperson said today. Read more.
The power failed for more than 1,000 homes and businesses between Belgrade Avenue, West Roxbury Parkway and Washington Street around 5:40 p.m., Eversource reports. Read more
Eversource outage map; orange dot is for more than 1,600 customers.
Eversource reports nearly 1,900 homes and businesses in a swath of Roxbury along Melnea Cass Boulevard - and into South Boston - are without power. Among the affected buildings: 1010 Massachusetts Ave., home to the Boston Public Health Commission, ISD and the Zoning Board of Appeal, which has turned to battery-powered laptops to try to continue its scheduled hearings for today.
Eversource says it hopes to begin restoring power around 3:30 p.m., with the final outage eliminated by 5.
Power's out in Roslindale in the area where Washington, Beech and Walworth streets conmingle in one of those three-way Boston intersections that are hard to navigate even when the traffic lights are working, given how many people run the lights, let alone now, when they're out and one resident reports "drivers are beeping" in an attempt to get through the mess.
Eversource reports a total of 385 residences and businesses are without power and estimates a 1 p.m. restoration time.
Update: Restoration time pushed back to 2:15 a.m.
The Boston Fire Department responded to 265 Main St., near School Street, in Charlestown when a manhole exploded around 5:45 p.m. As of 9:20 p.m., Eversource is reporting 295 homes and businesses are without power, which it hopes to restore by 10:15 p.m.
Routes of new electrical lines; new substation is pink rectangle on right; existing substations are orange triangles.
The state Energy Facilities Siting Board recently approved plans by Eversource to build a large new underground substation in Kendall Square and 8.5 miles of new high-voltage lines connecting it to other Eversource substations in Brighton and Somerville to deal with growing demand from new construction and electric vehicles - and Vicinity Energy's plans to convert its Kendall Square steam-generating boilers to electric power. Read more.
Brandon watched the action as a utility pole at Pearl Street and Putnam Avenue burst into flames and exploded several times.
Eversource reports about 1,750 businesses and homes are without power (and AC); estimates restoration by 5:15 p.m.
A Hyde Park homeowner and a Cambridge resident last week filed what they hope will be a class-action suit against Eversource for what they charge is constant false advertising and marketing about the supposed environmental and health benefits of natural gas, claims they say are belied by recent scientific studies and even the company's own statements, even if buried away in footnotes in documents most people will never read. Read more.
Mascij reports Charlestown experienced "rolling blackouts" starting around 2 a.m. on Friday and continuing on into the night.
Jamaica Plain News talks to Eversource about what caused Thursday night's outage in Jamaica Plain, which at its peak took out power to more than 4,400 residences and businesses.
Update, 10:50 a.m. Eversource says it's restored almost all the power, except to 10 customers.
Around 9 p.m., the lights began blinking out in Jamaica Plain. As of 9:35, Eversource is reporting 4,438 homes and businesses in Boston without power, most of them in JP, and most of those clustered in the area between Jamaica Pond, the Arboretum and Franklin Park, about as far north as Parley Avenue and Green Street. Read more.
Fire crews on St. Stephens Street, photo by Shamus Moynihan.
Two manholes on St. Stephen Street in the Fenway exploded and began belching smoke around 10 a.m. Read more.
Eversource map showing outages in Roxbury, South End at 11 p.m.
Update 11 p.m.: The number of businesses and homes without power is up to 7,959.
Eversource reports a series of power outages from just north of Franklin Park up to Boston Medical Center and areas near Tremont and Dartmouth street to the turnpike. Some 204 business and homes were blacked out as of 10:05 p.m. - as well as traffic and street lights.
Firefighters, police officers and public-works and Eversource crews earned their pay today as a never ending flood of reports came in about downed trees and utility poles, power outages and flooded roads. Here are some of the reports reported to Boston 311 today: Read more.
Update, 12:45 p.m.: Outage numbers now around 6,112 in Boston, with numerous outages in Hyde Park and Mattapan.
As of 9:30 a.m., Eversource reported more than 3,400 businesses and homes in Boston have lost power - including 1,600 or so in Roxbury, where falling tree limbs knocked out power at 6:32 a.m. and 1,400 in Jamaica Plain, where the power went off at 8:09 a.m.
The Centre Street corridor from roughly the Arborway rotary to Boylston Street went dark around 12:30 a.m. for maintenance, Eversource reports. As of 9:25, Eversource was still reporting 667 houses and businesses had no power, with an estimated restoration time for most of them around 11:30 a.m.
Outages at 11:30 a.m., via Eversource outage map.
Update, 3:15 p.m. Eversource reports 139 homes and businesses still without power in Boston, but no outages in Dedham, Brookline and Newton.
Eversource is blaming "equipment damage" for widespread outages that started around 10:45 a.m. in an area that extends from Brookline and Newton streets in the north to most of West Roxbury and Dedham in the south. Parts of Roslindale as far east as Roslindale Square are also affected. Read more.
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