Nearly 2,000 West Penn Power customers were without electricity Monday morning in the Connoquenessing area, including Connoquenessing Elementary School.

According to First Energy outage information online, that amounts to more than 99% of customers in the borough and 90% in the township.

Lauren Siburkis, spokesman for First Energy, the parent company of West Penn Power, said animal contact with equipment at about 10 a.m. at a nearby substation caused the outage.

Siburkis said most customers would be back up at lunchtime.

Just after 3 p.m., neither the township nor borough were listed under outages in Butler County, meaning power had been restored to all customers.

Brian White, Butler Area School District superintendent, said emergency generators kept on the school’s lights when the outage struck.

“At least it’s not a frigid day,” White said.

White said school officials early in the day considered busing students to the Intermediate High School in Butler Township if West Penn Power officials predicted an extended outage.

He said power company officials told him at about 10 a.m. that power to the school would be restored fairly soon, so the students remained.

Siburkis said First Energy crews have installed interior fencing around the perimeter of many substations, including some in Butler County, to prevent animal contact with equipment.

“It prevents climbing or crawling animals from interfering with our electrical equipment,” she said.

Siburkis said First Energy is continuing to identify substations that would benefit from the fencing, which has not been installed at the substation that caused the Connoquenessing outage.