DTE: Outages Will Continue During Repairs

More than a week after an equipment problem in a Royal Oak substation resulted in , DTE workers remain on site investigating and customers continue to experience intermittent outages.

"From time to time, when workers are trying to fix equipment, it will be necessary to bring down power on a given current in order to make the environment safe to complete the repair," DTE spokesman Alejandro Bodipo-Memba said Thursday.

The utility has taken temporary measures to keep customers online since the July 17 fire that caused 10,000 outages in Royal Oak and Berkley. are dotted around the cities and a large portable substation is located on Webster Road in front of the Royal Oak substation.

Assistant to the City Manager Darchelle Strickland Love said a DTE generator was powering the Berkley Public Safety Department and City Hall, as well as some surrounding businesses and residences.

The July 17 equipment failure was so intense that it blew out a window and a door several feet away in the substation, Royal Oak Fire Marshall Fire Marshal Tom Nikkila said.

"It was a high-heat fire," he said. "It was quite an event.

"I am not an electrical engineer. You would have to talk to DTE," Nikkila said when asked about the fire's cause. "I can tell you it was 102 degrees that day. The demand for electricity had to be incredible."

The National Weather Service issued an excessive heat watch July 17 for southeast Michigan and the Detroit Free Press reported that the high hit 101 degrees, which tied a record first set on July 17, 1887.

"I expect the problem is related to the extremely high heat," DTE spokesman Len Singer said at the time. "Today has been the highest demand on the electrical system of the year. It has also been the hottest day of the year."

Bodipo-Memba said Thursday the utility company has no estimated time for when the permanent repairs will be complete.

"It was a pretty big fire," he said.