A Piedmont Electric Cooperative transmission issue left more than 7,000 customers without power in Orange County Friday morning. As outages continued along Smith Level Road, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools dismissed Carrboro High School students early at 11:
At 11:30 a.m., the announcement came that students at Carrboro High School would not finish out the day.
The reason was straightforward and urgent: a power outage tied to a Piedmont Electric Cooperative transmission issue was still affecting parts of Orange County, and Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools moved quickly to protect students during the disruption.
The district said the students would be dismissed for an unexpected half-day due to the ongoing outage. It also arranged grab-and-go meals for lunch. and it confirmed that school bus transportation would be available for all students who typically ride the bus home. Other dismissal procedures were taking place normally—just at 11:30 a.m.
By midmorning, the electrical picture was mixed. A 12:15 p.m. update reported that the remaining customers who experienced an outage had restored service. Piedmont Electric Cooperative said on its Facebook page that a damaged transformer at its Carrboro substation caused complications to repairs. and that work was still ongoing.
The 11:30 a.m. update showed why the school decision couldn’t wait: while most Piedmont Electric customers who lost power saw service restored by 11:30 a.m., more than 2,600 customers along Smith Level Road were still without power. Piedmont Electric estimated power would be restored there by 2 p.m.
Earlier in the morning, the outage had spread far beyond one neighborhood. Piedmont Electric Cooperative reported that more than 7,000 customers in Orange County lost power Friday. The locally run utility said the outages began shortly before 7:30 a.m. with a transmission line issue affecting several substations and causing power to go down.
At 7:45 a.m., Piedmont Electric said crews were investigating and “working safely and efficiently to restore power as quickly as possible.” As of 8:30 a.m., the utility estimated that power to all the customers affected by the issue would be restored around 10:30 a.m.
The bulk of the outages were in southern Orange County to the west and southwest of Carrboro. Piedmont Electric said more than 2,000 customers were without power along North Carolina Highway 54 and Jones Ferry Road. Another 2,600 customers were down along Smith Level Road and surrounding neighborhoods.
Just north of Chapel Hill, roughly 2,400 customers also experienced an outage around the same time. The outage map showed swaths of buildings along New Hope Church Road and Mt. Sinai without power.
The outage also pushed into daily routines and road safety. The shutdown knocked out several traffic lights in the affected areas. North Carolina laws for drivers approaching a flashing or out-of-power light require motorists to treat the intersection like a four-way stop—halting the vehicle and looking in all directions before proceeding.
For customers trying to report outages, Piedmont Electric provided three options: calling 800-222-3107, texting “#out” to the same phone number, or using SmartHub by selecting “Report an issue/inquiry” from the Quick Links section.
For many families, though, the first real moment of disruption came not at a roadside intersection, but inside a school building—when the district had to adjust the day at 11:30 a.m. to account for the still-moving timeline of power restoration.
Piedmont Electric Cooperative Carrboro High School power outage Orange County Smith Level Road transmission issue Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools