Power is back on in the Twin Cities south metro. where thousands were in the dark for a brief time Wednesday morning.

The outage affected about 30,000 customers in Bloomington, Richfield and south Minneapolis for about 20 minutes, said Xcel Energy spokesman Matt Lindstrom.

Edina police also warned motorists to drive with caution as traffic signals at Hwy. 62 and France and Hwy. 62 and Xerxes were dark.

Power went out about 10 a.m. and was caused by a downed wire at a substation near W. 78th Street and S. Nicollet Avenue, Lindstrom said.

Workers cleared the downed wire and electricity was restored in about 20 minutes, Lindstrom said.

Tim Harlow • 612-673-7768