BANGOR – A power outage early Tuesday provided the first test of Penobscot County’s new Enhanced 911 system.

It passed with flying colors.

The backup generator kicked in about 40 seconds after the power went out about 1:15 a.m., Jim Ryan, director for Penobscot Regional Dispatch Center, told Penobscot County commissioners Tuesday.

“The system worked beautifully,” he said. “All the fire doors in the building shut automatically, just the way they were supposed to.”

Power was restored without a problem about an hour later, Ryan said.

A fuse disconnect at the Broadway substation at 1:16 a.m. left 1,177 customers in the city without power, a spokeswoman for Bangor Hydro-Electric Co., said. Businesses and homes on Kenduskeag Avenue, Husson Avenue, Ohio Street and Court Street were affected.

Penobscot County Jail, the Penobscot County Courthouse and Husson College lost power, according to Bangor Hydro.

Commissioners also acknowledged the receipt of a thank-you card from dispatchers who last week moved from the basement of the 3rd District Court building to the third floor of the Penobscot County Courthouse.

“I’ve seen the light,” one wrote, referring to the fact that the new space has widows and cramped basement room did not.

County agencies have begun vying for that windowless space. Commissioners toured the area Tuesday morning as workers removed lines and cables strung above ceiling panels.

The former dispatch room will be used by the joint task force composed of Penobscot County sheriff’s deputies and state troopers that investigates crimes such as the recent rash of copper thefts in the area.

District Court Judge Robert E. “Buddy” Murray will use one basement office until the new courthouse is completed in late 2009.

The county’s Emergency Management Agency would like to use some of the space not already claimed for equipment storage, County Administrator Bill Collins said. Probation and parole officers and court mediators also may want to see if space might be available to them since they have offices adjacent to the dispatch’s former home.

The county jail has 20 inmates at the cost of $100 per day per inmate boarded out to other county jails around the state due to overcrowding at the Bangor facility, Sheriff Glenn Ross said after the meeting. There are 183 inmates at the jail, he said, one more than it is licensed to hold.