Several power outages across Shippensburg University’s campus this year have affected most residence and dining buildings.
In an effort to keep students and faculty up to date, Associate Vice President of Facilities Management and Planning, Lance Bryson, went over some of the details of the power failures.
There have been both planned and unplanned outages so far this year, Bryson explained, as the construction on campus is still in progress.
Planned outages are usually contained to one or two buildings at a time, and often few people even notice them. It is the unplanned failures that disrupt activities and events and often take time and resources to fix.
On Saturday, Sept. 22, most buildings across campus lost power for almost a full day, from 6:15 a.m. until almost 8 p.m.
According to Bryson, the culprit was a faulty breaker that had to be repaired, so while that was being worked on several backup generators kept the power on in various administrative buildings and the dining halls.
On Sept. 2, students also received an email blast informing them that streetlights across campus and in the parking lots were out.
This was due to a damaged power cable operated by Penelec, a local branch of First Energy electric company, had to be called in to find the issue.
The problem was the underground power cables were around 40 years old and in need of replacement parts and maintenance; this is now in the process of being fixed.
In late August, the power was out in several buildings due to elevator construction. Shearer Hall and Wright Hall both had elevators installed; both of these projects have now been completed.
More planned outages are likely in the upcoming months, especially in January. Demolition starts on Jan. 13, and areas of campus near Lackhove, Keiffer, and McCune residence halls will be affected; students will be notified when the power will be affected.
Other construction projects that may affect the electricity are some roofing jobs coming up as well as any elevator construction that is still in progress.
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