A switch blew up at a substation and caused a massive electrical outage Wednesday morning, just as people were driving to work and opening businesses.

An estimated 13,800 Lincoln Electric System customers were affected by the outage from 8:20 to 8:34 a.m., said utility spokesman Russ Reno.

The power outage knocked out four substations at 30th and A, 29th and Leighton, 8th and N and 17th and Holdrege, he said.

People living and working in an area from 6th to 48th streets and Van Dorn to Adams streets were affected by the outage, along with the north downtown area.

Police redirected traffic at 33rd and Vine streets after the intersection’s traffic lights went out. Several other intersections were without power, Officer Katherine Finnell said, but drivers were able to sort things out for themselves.

Several burglar alarms were tripped off throughout the city, but no major problems were reported by police.

The power outage affected some buildings on the perimeters of UNL's City and East campuses, Reno said.

The outage occurred when the utility’s dispatch center switched off some power lines so crews could work on a 115-kilovolt line, he said.

“When they did that the switch  failed,” Reno said.  The switch was at the 29th Street and Leighton Avenue substation.

After the power went out, dispatchers rerouted circuits around the problem areas and had all power restored by 8:34 a.m., Reno said.