A major power outage affecting about 650 homes and businesses in Old Town was repaired by Niagara-on-the-Lake Hydro in just under three hours on Thursday morning.

Hydro president Tim Curtis told The Lake Report that a part failed in a transformer on John Street West near Mississagua.

The small, aging part, an elbow where the electrical lines enter the box, caused the outage.

Those parts usually last about 40 years, he said.

Curtis said the outage began at around 7:10 a.m. and hydro staff had the transformer repaired by just before 10 a.m.

When the crew arrived on-site, the box was smoking.

“People should not be going near the equipment” in such a situation, he said.

The cost of replacing a whole hydro box can run as high as $20,000 but the elbow pieces are pretty affordable, Curtis said.

The biggest costs are time and labour.

Power lines run into the boxes from underground and Curtis said such lines are more reliable than overhead wires, but harder to fix when they fail.

“When there is an outage, it tends to be a bit bigger and longer,” he said.