PARTS of Tavistock were blacked out for about 20 minutes last Friday afternoon, while a power-line, damaged by lightning, was repaired.
A number of people in Bere Alston suffered a series of ten-second power cuts earlier in the morning as automatic overload systems went into operation.
Western Power Distribution, realising there was a problem, sent a number of teams and a helicopter out to find the fault.
A lightning safety device was found to have blown.
A spokesman said they had re-routed power as much as possible to minimise the number of people affected by the power shutdown — three sub-stations were closed rather than a possible 20. People in the Abbotsfield side of Tavistock were affected.