North Campus power problem fixed
Equipment failure, loss of backup leave campus in dark twice in one week

By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor

University Facilities staff have addressed a power problem that left the North Campus in the dark twice within one week.

Although staff still must replace some equipment, the two separate systems that simultaneously power the North Campus were restored as of 11 a.m. Monday, said Michael Dupre, associate vice president for university facilities.

University Facilities administrators say no injuries or major problems resulted from the two separate power outages on Feb. 12 and last Friday afternoon.

Although Dupre could not say for certain that the outages would not happen again, the campus is "in a much more dependable position now," he said.

The North Campus first went dark on Feb. 12 when some electrical equipment failed, said Louis Schmitt, director of facilities operations. That outage, which occurred about 10:45 a.m., lasted up to an hour and a half, depending upon the location on campus.

Dupre noted that the time for power restoration varies because power is restored automatically in some buildings and manually, on site, in others.

Schmitt explained that in order to supply power to a campus as large and complex as UB's, the university has what is called a "redundant power supply." That is, two separate systems power the campus. And when one system fails, the other automatically takes over, he said. Normally, when one system fails, "the campus usually sees a little blip," and then the second system takes over.

However, Schmitt said, UB "lost redundancy" in the Feb. 12 incident, meaning that although power was restored, the campus was running on a single power supply. So when Friday's wet snow caused another outage at 1:15 p.m., it "took down the whole campus," he said.

Most buildings lost power on Friday for 30-45 minutes, Schmitt said. Power was restored when facilities staff "performed some high-voltage switching operations to bypass the problem areas."

He noted that the only significant problem he knew of that resulted from the outages was the failure of a large generator in Cooke Hall to activate.

Schmitt said that virtually every building on campus has a building generator, which powers exit lights and about one of 10 corridor lights to allow occupants to navigate the building.

In addition, the outage affected computing services, including email, the central mainframe and central printing services. Most service was restored by 5 p.m.

Dupre pointed out that the outage on Feb. 12, which knocked out the redundant power system, "made Friday's outage much worse" than it normally would have been.

But now that both power systems have been restored, facilities staff is working to replace the equipment that failed Feb. 12, he said.