Scattered power outages after reported explosion affect White House, Capitol

An explosion is believed by officials to have caused a widespread power outage Tuesday afternoon in the U.S. capitol.

The explosion occurred before 1:00 p.m. at a SMECO power facility in Southern Maryland, authorities confirmed to the Associated Press. The incident is not believed to be terror related.

Buildings including the White House, State Department, Capitol and Justice Department lost power for more than an hour but have gradually begun coming on line, according to reports.

A PEPCO outage map showed multiple locations around Washington, D.C., plunged into darkness as of 1:30 p.m. Less than 1,000 customers remained without power by about 2:00 p.m., but some of them are not estimated to have their services restored until Wednesday evening.

PEPCO

The State Department's daily news briefing was suspended after power was lost. A department announcement said the main building and other nearby buildings were affected because electricity feeders were down.

The U.S. Capitol complex was operating using a backup generator, one congressional aide said.

 The White House briefly lost power, according to CBS News' Mark Knoller, but quickly jumped back on the grid using backup generators.

Other government buildings lost power, including the Department of Energy and the Smithsonian Museum, the latter of which has been evacuated.

Some metro stations in Washington were running on emergency lighting, according to the city's transportation authority.

Power company PEPCO was not immediately available for comment but does have a dubious reputation among many in the capitol region. The maligned utility was named in 2011 by Business Insider as "the most hated company in America."

This honor came as a result of the average PEPCO customer experiencing 70 percent more outages than customers of other urban utilities, according to a Washington Post study.