NEW ORLEANS (AP) — An electrical device that had been installed expressly to prevent a power outage failed, causing the Super Bowl blackout, the stadium’s power company said Friday as it took the blame for the outage that brought the game to a halt for more than a half-hour.
Officials of Entergy New Orleans, a subsidiary of New Orleans-based Entergy Corp., said the device, called a relay, had been installed in switching gear to protect the Superdome from a cable failure between the company’s incoming power line and lines that run into the stadium.
The switching gear is housed in a building known as “the vault” near the stadium that receives a line directly from a nearby Entergy power substation. Once the line reaches the vault, it splits into two cables that go into the Superdome.
Go figure: Super Bowl blackout blamed on faulty device installed to prevent a failure of electric cables: apne.ws/TU8uYE -BW
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 8, 2013