Nearly 3,200 Minnesota Power customers in Tower/Soudan, Winton, and Ely were without power for a little over an hour on Wednesday morning, all but shutting down area businesses in the affected communities.

The outage occurred at 10:08 a.m., according to MP spokesperson Amy Rutledge, and crews had the power restored in just over an hour. The widespread outage was sparked by a line fault experienced during maintenance work on the 46 kilovolt feeder line that parallels Hwy. 169 and supplies the communities served by Minnesota Power. While Ely residents receive their power through the Ely Utilities Commission, Minnesota Power’s 46 KV line is the electrical supplier for the EUC.

EUC Director Harold Langowski said about 1,800 EUC customers were affected by the outage. “We probably fielded over 200 phone calls in that hour,” Langowski said.

An additional 403 Minnesota Power customers in the Ely area, but outside the EUC service area, were also affected, as were 537 customers in Tower, 305 in Soudan, and 152 in Winton.

The outage prompted many businesses in Tower and Ely to close their doors temporarily. Vermilion Fuel and Food, in Tower, was one. “Without power, the gas pumps don’t work, the credit card machine doesn’t work, the DNR license machine doesn’t work, and the cash register doesn’t work,” said Fuel and Food owner Dave Sorenson. “After about 15 minutes we just shut it down. There’s not much you can do.”

The power outage did not affect customers of Lake Country Power.