A faulty underground line caused a 45-minute power outage Monday afternoon in buildings on the north end of Northwestern’s campus, a power company spokesman said.

The outage affected 750 customers, including Sargent Hall and Bobb Hall residents, from about 12:45 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., said Commonwealth Edison spokesman John Dewey.

Although high winds [Read more] had left 14,000 people in ComEd’s service area without power as of 1:00 p.m., the reason for the malfunction in the underground line that caused the Northwestern outage has not been determined, Dewey said.

The underground line is connected to equipment and lines above ground so it is possible the incident was weather related, Dewey said.

“We’re not looking for the root cause at this time,” Dewey said. “At this point our focus is on restoring power to as many customers as possible.”

ComEd serves about 3.7 million customers in Northern Illinois and is Northwestern’s power provider.

Malfunctioning underground cables were also the cause of the Feb. 22 power outage that affected about 860 addresses in the Evanston/Northwestern area, including campus buildings such as Norris University Center. [[woj]]

Underground cable faults occur in infrastructures of Northwestern’s size, Director of Operations for Facilities Management Gary Wojtowicz said.

For some Northwestern students, the loss of power wasn’t a huge issue, but it did create some problems as students prepare for final exams.

Weinberg junior and Sargent resident George Liu said if the outage had lasted longer, he would have gone to the library to study, which would have been a hassle.

McCormick sophomore Patrick Bell also said the loss of power wasn’t a big deal for him, but he said his roommate lost part of a paper he had been working on.

For now, ComEd is encouraging customers to call in (1-800-334-7661) and report any outages or damaged lines, Dewey said.

Reach Anna Prior at [email protected].

The DAILY’s Deepa Seetharaman contributed to this report.