Power returns in Wildwood after outages impact thousands of customers

Update: Power has been restored to all customers as of 4:30 a.m. on Sunday morning.

An electric plant substation fire knocked out power throughout the island of Wildwood -- including on the Jersey Shore destination's boardwalk and at traffic lights -- during a busy summer Friday.

By Saturday morning, power had been restored to approximately 16,200 residents and crews continue to work on opportunities to reroute electricity to restore service safely for all impacted customers, authorities said.

Crews initially expected to have more than 80% of all customers, including the Wildwood Boardwalk, restored by 6:30 p.m. and all remaining customers restored by 9 p.m. Saturday, officials said in an update at 3 p.m. on Saturday.

ETRs for the Wildwood area have been updated. We expect to have more than 80% of customers, including the Wildwood Boardwalk, restored by 6:30 p.m. today and all remaining customers restored by 9 p.m. Please know we are doing all we can to restore everyone as quickly as possible. pic.twitter.com/GODFsUhUsE

— Atlantic City Electric (@ACElecConnect) July 8, 2023

But, power didn't come on until early Sunday, with additional outages reported Saturday night as crews worked to restore power.

However, early Sunday, officials said that power had finally returned to all customers.

We have restored service for all customers impacted by the fire at our substation in Wildwood. If your power is still out, call 800-833-7476. We thank our customers and vacationers for your patience as we worked to restore service. We thank our crews and everyone who assisted.

— Atlantic City Electric (@ACElecConnect) July 9, 2023

"Atlantic City Electric has restored electric service for all customers who were impacted by the fire at our Lake Avenue substation. Service for all customers was restored at 4:24 a.m. today. We thank our crews, operations teams and all the support personnel, including local contractors, who assisted in this effort. We also know this has been a challenging event for our customers and those who are vacationing on the island, and we thank them for their patience and understanding as we worked to restore service," the company wrote in a statement on Sunday morning.

There was an outage map for customers to track the progress crews made to restore power to everyone in the area.

The power went out at approximately noon on July 7, according to authorities.

"Fire at electric plant substation, power is out throughout the island," said a Nixle alert put out by the City of Wildwood. "Traffic lights are down. Use caution while driving."

Atlantic City Electric reported more than 24,000 outages in Cape May County, New Jersey, as of about 2 p.m. on Saturday -- the majority were in the Wildwoods.

On Sunday morning, officials said power had been restored to all customers.

This story is developing and will be updated.