Ulsan neighborhood plunged into cold darkness after cat short-circuits substation

Police officers patrol traffic in Ulsan during a blackout on Dec. 6. [NEWS1]

Ulsan suffered a major blackout at midnight on Wednesday, the second time this month, after a cat short-circuited an electrical substation.

Five apartment complexes with over 3,700 residents in Songjeong-dong, Buk District in Ulsan, experienced an electrical outage around 00:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Power was fully restored an hour later.

While no serious injuries or casualties were reported, residents shivered in the cold as their electrical heating systems shut down.

“Officers patrolled the neighborhood after receiving calls about the blackout,” said an Ulsan police officer. “However, traffic lights operated as usual.”

The police believe a cat crawled into the substation on the rooftop of a seven-story building in Songjeong-dong and caused the short circuit.

“It seemed to have been seeking shelter from the cold,” a police officer said.

The cat died from the electric shock.

“According to the Korea Electric Power Corp. (Kepco), the substation [that shut down the power] is connected to apartment complex electricity supply networks,” said a Buk District office official. “It appears that the electrocution of the cat caused the blackout.”

Kepco said the power system was repaired immediately after the outage.

However, restoring power to some apartment complexes took some time, depending on their power management systems.

This was the second blackout in the city this month.

More than 155,000 homes in the city's Nam District suffered a two-hour blackout on Dec. 6.

The blackout even knocked out the traffic system.

The Dec. 6 blackout in Ulsan was Korea's second largest power outage behind one that affected 200,000 homes in Seoul and Gyeonggi in 2017.

Kepco believes the blackout was caused by damage in the electric insulator at a 28-year-old substation in Ok-dong.

“The recent blackouts in Ulsan are increasing anxiety among residents much like an earthquake,” said a Nam District resident.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and private sector experts are trying to determine the exact cause of the Dec. 6 blackout.

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]