Berlins Today
EAST LANSING – It could take until the end of the week before Michigan State University has hot water throughout campus and classes are not happening remotely because of a widespread weekend power outage . The Infrastructure Planning and Facilities team was still working to restore hot water and steam on campus the afternoon of Monday, Sept. 21, when university officials provided an update. MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz told media it could take three to five days for campus to get back to normal after an equipment failure at the T.B.
Simon Power Plant shortly after 4 p.m. Saturday. Power was restored by around 11:30 p.m.
Saturday, but as of 4 p.m. Monday, Sept. 21, some parts of campus still didn't have access to hot water or steam. Additionally, the university is not able to regulate heating or cooling on campus.
During the outage, crews from MSU's Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Facilities identified a problem with a “power bus,” a central connection point at the T. B. Simon Power Plant on campus.
The outage halted the ability of the power plant to generate electricity and steam to campus buildings. Steam will be restored to campus in phases, Guskiewicz said. As a result, some courses will be held remotely throughout the week and the university's individual colleges will decide the best course for students enrolled in their classes.
"We will return to in-person instruction as soon as possible," Guskiewicz said. "I'm really proud of the work that the teams have ben doing, working together as one team as we do at Michigan State to manage a situation like this." Guskiewicz clarified there are no safety concerns and the water is safe to drink and use in cooking, the only concern is based around the inability to provide hot water on campus. Kenneth McFarlane, associate vice president of Strategic Infrastructure Planning and Facilities, said the power plant is now stable and making its own power.
Some buildings may have tripped breakers because of the outage, and those are being addressed individually. There were 115 buildings impacted on campus, 24 of which need both steam and hot water restored, McFarlane said. "There was a piece of equipment that failed within the power plant, in definitely an unprecedented situation," he said.
"It took down power on campus in a way that we haven't experienced before. (We're) still investigating the overall cause but we found the source and were able to resolve that and get things back online." He said steam will be restored on campus in a cross-campus zone restoration process. Some buildings experienced water leaks as a result of cooling steam lines within buildings, leading to some water damage. Patricia Martinez, associate vice president of Residential and Hospitality Services, told the media that there haven't been disruptions to dining halls.
She said instead the dining halls have offered different meal options that don't require hot water. The university has not determined how much food had to be disposed of. MSU Police Chief Mike Yankowski said the failure was purely an equipment failure at the plant.
He said there were no injuries, and the department responded to around 19 service calls for people trapped in elevators when the power went out. Guskiewicz said there has not been an entire campuswide outage in the last few decades, and the widespread nature is the reason delivering steam back to campus is coming with complications. As restoration progress continues, updates will be shared via MSU.edu/emergency .
Contact Karly Graham at kgraham@lsj.com. Follow her on X at @KarlyGrahamJrn. Facebook Twitter Email
Source: Lansing State Journal
