Power Outage in Washington, America.

The White House, the Capitol and the State Department were hit by a power outage which swept the Washington area on Tuesday. 

The outage knocked out electricity for thousands around the US capital.

Outages stretched from downtown Washington into neighboring Maryland, knocking power out for more than 2,500 people, according to area power companies.  

Washington power provider Pepco said the outage was caused by a dip in voltage as a result of an issue with the transmission line.

“There was never a loss of permanent supply of electricity to customers,” Pepco said.

Electricity was back to normal by mid-afternoon and the company had dispatched teams to look into how it happened.

Outages were reported at more than 2,100 premises and households in Washington, according to Pepco, and more in Maryland suburbs southeast of the capital.

Major government buildings were not spared, including the White House, which lost power briefly.

Back-up generators kicked in promptly to restore lights and computers that were knocked out for several seconds, according to an AFP reporter.