国际英语新闻:Widespread power cut sweeps Washington

WASHINGTON, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Widespread power outage early Tuesday afternoon swept Washington, D.C. area, affecting White House, State Department, Capitol and other government buildings.

Power failure in the White House was brief, with electricity in the White House press briefing room dipped for seconds before returning to normal at midday.

"The impact (of power outrage) on those of us who were working at the White House was minimal," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest at the daily briefing shortly after the incident. "A complex like the White House has certain(ly) built in redundancies to mitigate the impact of those sorts of events."

However, power cut at the State Department during the daily briefing forced spokeswoman Marie Harf to finish the briefing in darkness with light from cell phones.

At about 3:30 p.m., Harf tweeted that "power has now been fully restored to the State Department's main building."

Several metro stations in Washington were also forced to run on emergency lighting, the authorities said. Later, the city metro authorities tweeted that by 2:45 p.m., power had been fully restored to all metrorail stations.

"Shortly before 1 p.m. Tuesday we experienced a dip in voltage in the Washington D.C. area. This was caused by an issue with a transmission line," said a statement by Potomac Electric Power Company (Pepco), electric services provider for Washington, D.C. and Maryland.

According to the statement, the dip in voltage caused equipment at some customer facilities to transfer to their backup systems.

"There was never a loss of permanent supply of electricity to customers," said the statement. "The momentary outrage occurred because of customer equipment responding to a dip in voltage."

According to the U.S. TV network cnn, the power outrage, which affected about 2,000 customers in the Washington area, was caused by an explosion and fire at a power substation in Maryland. Possibility of any terrorist or criminal activity was ruled out by U.S. Homeland Security officials.