Update: Power Restored to Majority of Area After Copper Theft Causes Cranberry, Zelienople Outage

Power was restored to most of the area around 2 p.m. Wednesday after an early morning copper theft from a substation along Route 19 caused about 4,000 people from across the Cranberry and Zelienople area to be without power.

Cranberry Township police said the thieves entered the substation around 4 a.m by cutting the fence surrounding the substation near Victory Church. They also cut the grounding cables that activate the equipment.

Penn Power spokesman Doug Colafella said the thieves stole all the copper grounding wires from the station. This is the fourth copper theft from area substations in less that a week. Colafella said there were two thefts from the same substation in Zelienople and a theft from a New Castle substation since Thursday.

“We’re obviously working with the local authorities to determine if these are all connected,” he said

He believes a transformer went down when the thief or thieves tried to cut the wire from the equipment.

“We think when that happened it caused a minor explosion,” he said.

Colafella said Penn Power brought in a mobile unit to restore power. Despite high temperatures that could have hampered efforts to bring back power because of the demand air-conditioning units place on the system, Colafella said crews were able to restore power earlier than expected.

“We worked as quickly as we could to get everybody’s power back on,” he said.

As of 5 p.m. posters on the Cranberry Patch site and Facebook page said power is still out in the Marshall Woods, Winchester Farms and Pinehurst neighborhoods and the Franklin Road corridor. 

Cranberry Township police said the thieves risked injury or death when they entered the substation area, which is covered with signs warning of electrocution hazards. Area hospitals will be checked for anyone who was treated for electrical burns, police said.

“It’s an extremely dangerous way to try to make a few bucks,” Colafella said.

Cranberry Police continue to investigate the theft. Anyone with information is asked to call police at 724-776-5180.