Yesterday afternoon, Grand Haven experienced a significant power outage affecting approximately 15,000 customers across the Board of Light & Power's coverage area. The outage, initially reported by FOX 17, took place after a protective relay failed at one of the BLP substations. It appears that the outage was compounded by planned maintenance on another transmission feed, which ultimately led to a full system shutdown.

Rob Shelley, the General Manager of the Grand Haven Board of Light & Power, praised his employees for their swift action during the emergency. "I would like to thank the BLP employees for remaining calm and quickly responding," Shelley described, as per WZZM 13, adding, "This allowed us to identify the process necessary to rapidly restore power to our customers and the community." The public was assured of their safety as Public Safety officials also responded quickly at traffic intersections.

The outage occurred around 1:30 p.m. with services beginning to resume approximately an hour later. Erik Booth, BLP Operations and Power Supply Manager said, as cited by WOODTV, "It’s been a really long time since we’ve experienced an outage of this magnitude," reflecting the uncommon nature of the event. By 2:45 p.m., power had been restored to all affected circuits according to the BLP.

WZZM 13 reported that while Grand Haven Area Public Schools saw several buildings without power, including Central High School and Ferry and Voyager Elementary School, they managed a typical bus and parent pickup schedule.