WEST OCEAN CITY -- Extensive power outages in the West Ocean City area late Monday night and Tuesday morning were caused by a malfunctioning transformer in the area of Golf Course Rd., and the subsequent minor outages again on Tuesday afternoon were the result of repairs with the original problem.

On Monday night, Delmarva Power experienced a transformer malfunction in the Culver Substation on Golf Course Rd. The equipment failure caused a power outage for 3,689 Delmarva Power customers from shortly after 11 p.m. on Monday to around 12:25 a.m. on Tuesday. Delmarva Power responded by tying the Culver Substation on Golf Course Rd. to the Worcester Substation in the Berlin area in order to restore service to the affected customer early Tuesday morning.

On Tuesday afternoon, a “recloser” on the line near the Worcester Substation started to overload and consequently trip out, according to Delmarva Power officials. In effect, a recloser opens when it detects a problem with the flow of electricity. The recloser will stay open until the problem is corrected.

“The overloaded recloser caused what are called momentary outages for about 4,900 customers in West Ocean City,” said Delmarva Power media relations manager Matt Likovich on Tuesday afternoon. “Customers probably saw their lights flicker on and off.”

According to Likovich, the “momentaries” took place from 2:12 p.m. to 2:39 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon. Delmarva Power resolved Tuesday afternoon’s problem by installing a mobile transformer in the Culver Substation on Golf Course Rd. to temporarily take over the workload of the malfunctioning transformer on Monday night.