Power company says cause of Super Bowl outage was faulty electrical relay device, now removed

New Orleans, LA - A power company says the cause of the Super Bowl blackout was a faulty device that had been installed to prevent a failure of electric cables leading to the Superdome.

Officials of Entergy New Orleans say the device, called a relay, had been installed to protect the stadium from a cable failure between the company's incoming power line and lines that run into the stadium.

Company officials said the device performed without problem during Sugar Bowl tests and other earlier events.

They said the device has been removed and replacement equipment will be installed.

The power failure cut lights to about half of the SMG-run stadium for 34 minutes, halting play between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers.