Power back on downtown

Buildings in the northern half of downtown Nashville went powerless for about an hour this afternoon, but electricity is reportedly back in most of the area.

A blown insulator at Nashville Electric Service’s central substation off First Avenue left several buildings in the area without power. Those affected included state government offices, the Metro Courthouse, WTVF-NewsChannel 5 headquarters and Municipal Auditorium, among others.

Power went out around 2:45 p.m., according to Laurie Parker, spokesperson for NES, but workers in some of the buildings now say electricity is restored.

NES reported on Twitter this afternoon that it would cut power downtown for 2-3 hours tonight to make repairs to its central substation. The outages — which will affect some downtown customers — take effect at midnight.