Purdue News
Purdue News
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July 13, 2004 Faulty cable disrupts campus electrical serviceWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Approximately 30 Purdue University buildings lost power for more than five hours Tuesday (July 13) when an underground cable failed during a scheduled maintenance operation. Joseph Mikesell, senior director of engineering utilities and construction utilities, said a short occurred at 10:10 a.m., disrupting service to older campus buildings north of State Street. Buildings without power included Hovde Hall of Administration, Stewart Center and Purdue Memorial Union. "After completing a scheduled switching operation, crews were re-energizing the feeder cable when it failed," Mikesell said. Fuses were replaced, and power was restored for a short time around 2 p.m. Buildings were taken back offline for additional work, and power was restored campuswide around 3:20 p.m. During repairs a team of electricians and engineers evaluated the site to make plans for a permanent repair to be completed when campus is less populated. The outage occurred when workers were replacing an oil switch with a gas switch that controls parts of the electric circuit. During the work, the 12,470-volt cable that feeds the North Power Plant failed. A short was discovered in the underground cable just east of the Bell Tower. When the power was restored at 2 p.m. an electrical supply motor in the Electrical Engineering Building's attic overheated, producing heavy smoke on the third floor, said Purdue deputy fire chief, Kevin Ply. There was $3,000 worth of damage to the motor. Purdue is in its first week of the third summer module. The decision on whether to cancel classes or close buildings was made by each department. The outage affected several areas of Information Technology at Purdue, including the ITAP Customer Service Center, which is located in Stewart Center. Users in buildings that retained power had access to computing networks. Source: Joseph Mikesell, (765) 494-7327 Steve Tally, Information Technology at Purdue, (765) 494-9809, tally@purdue.edu Kevin Ply, (765) 494-6919, kmply@purdue.edu Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
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