CITY centre businesses in Southampton were this morning plunged into darkness in a “major power outage”.
Around 175 properties, largely businesses, around Western Esplanade lost power from 8.25am.
The council’s "Gateway" one-stop-shop customer service centre in Guildhall Square was “evacuated”, a council spokeswoman said, as staff were left with no electricity.
She said the “major power outage” also knocked out phones and electricity supply at the Civic Centre.
Nearby businesses were also left without power and there was traffic light failure reported at the A335 Charlotte Place roundabout.
The city’s Crown Court was twice hit by power failures.
A Southern Electric spokesman said a fault in the underground high voltage network caused the powers cuts from 8.25am affecting 175 customers.
The spokesman said electricity was restored to most of them within an hour and fully restored by 10.15am after supplies were re-routed.
He apologised for any inconvenience caused and said engineers were investigating the cause to carry out repairs.
Southampton City Council said its power would not be back on until 11.15am and would longer before it was "fully operational" and its Gateway could re-open.
