KENNEBUNKPORT – Residents and visitors in Kennebunkport yesterday experienced multiple power outages on what was one of the hottest days on record – and also the first day of the three-day Fourth of July holiday weekend when the area was swarmed with tourists and visitors.

After off and on outages throughout the day, a late night Friday voicemail from Central Maine Power to affected homes and businesses stated that CMP was “conducting controlled outages in certain areas as a temporary measure to help protect the electrical system during this period of extreme heat.” According to the National Weather Service, the heat index in Kennebunkport reached the mid-to-upper 90s°F and exceeded 100°F inland.

“Initiating a controlled outage under the protocol used yesterday is unprecedented for Central Maine Power,” said CMP spokesperson Dustin Wlodkowski. “Communities like Kennebunkport saw high demand after a prolonged period of extreme heat. This equipment is designed to operate safely for a limited time above a defined strain threshold, and this week’s prolonged extreme heat pushed some of our equipment beyond that limit.” He added that the controlled outages were designed to protect the grid from heat-related damage.

Wlodkowski responded to a question on why the public was not warned that these outages might occur by reiterating that this situation was “unprecedented.”

Due to projected high temperatures, CMP had staffed extra crews ahead of the extreme heat so as to accelerate response times to restore power.

Overall, according to CMP, 3,440 Maine customers were affected by controlled outages, with 255 of those in Kennebunkport and 937 in Ogunquit and Wells. The remainer were in Gray, Ramond, New Gloucester, Durham and Pownal.

Wlodkowski noted that temperatures today are forecasted to potentially be lower than the past two days in the Kennebunk-Arundel-Kennebunkport service area.

(This story was updated at 4:22 p.m. July 4 with the numbers of CMP customers affected by controlled outages.)