Spring Break
Campus hit with blackout
Power outage lasts only 6 minutes
Andy Chu
Issue date: 5/15/07 Section: News
A campuswide blackout hit San Jose State University yesterday afternoon interrupting classes and forcing thousands of students to evacuate buildings and fill campus walkways in wait.
Jeff Richardson, assistant chief engineer for the Facilities Development and Operations Central Plant at SJSU, said he wasn't quite sure why the power went out but said it had something to do with what he described as a "fault transfer on transformer two."
Richardson said a fault is an interuption in distribution of electricity anywhere in the system.
He said that the official time of the power failure was 3:36 p.m.
The power was restored to campus by 3:42 p.m., Richardson said, a little more than six minutes later.
"We're happy with that," Richardson said of the time it took to get the power up and running again.
Gloria Robertson, an information services employee in the Student Union, said evacuting the building was mandatory.
"When the power goes out for several minutes it's a part of our emergency procedures to evacuate the building," Robertson said. "Everyone was really cooperative while evacuating the building."
No one was hurt in the Student Union, Robertson said, but the building needed to be evacuated so people wouldn't be stuck in the elevators or get injured, she said.
Evelyn Hernandez, a senior marjoring in art, said she was one of the students that had to evacuate the Student Union.
"I was just waiting for my next class," Hernandez said. "It was dark for several minutes then a lady on the PA said everyone needed to vacate the building."
Hernandez mentioned that the Student Union was not completely dark due to the skylights.
"It was dark, but it wasn't that bad," Hernandez said. "Everyone walked out calmly and actually some people didn't want to leave."
Michelle Garcia, a senior majoring in advertising, was working on a final paper when the lights went out.
"I was sitting up on the third floor working on my paper, and then suddenly all the lights went out," Garcia said. "I quickly started pressing 'save' on my computer because I didn't want to lose my paper."
Several classes in the Art building were moved out to the lawn so students could finish work on their laptops.
"We contacted PG&E to find out if there was … any information that they could lend us," Richardson said. "They said everything was fine on their line."
He explained that the campus plant recieves electricity from PG&E in addition to producing energy with a natural-gas-powered turbine generator.
Richardson said that the plant does not produce enough electricity to power the campus on its own. He said its main purpose is to provide steam and chilled water to campus.
Nevertheless, Richardson said, a glitch in the plant is enough to cause a campus power outage.
Richardson said he hoped to fix the fault in the transformer by adjusting a part called the resistance temperature detector, which was situated on the transformer itself. He said that while he was making that adjustment the power went out.
Jeff Richardson, assistant chief engineer for the Facilities Development and Operations Central Plant at SJSU, said he wasn't quite sure why the power went out but said it had something to do with what he described as a "fault transfer on transformer two."
Richardson said a fault is an interuption in distribution of electricity anywhere in the system.
He said that the official time of the power failure was 3:36 p.m.
The power was restored to campus by 3:42 p.m., Richardson said, a little more than six minutes later.
"We're happy with that," Richardson said of the time it took to get the power up and running again.
Gloria Robertson, an information services employee in the Student Union, said evacuting the building was mandatory.
"When the power goes out for several minutes it's a part of our emergency procedures to evacuate the building," Robertson said. "Everyone was really cooperative while evacuating the building."
No one was hurt in the Student Union, Robertson said, but the building needed to be evacuated so people wouldn't be stuck in the elevators or get injured, she said.
Evelyn Hernandez, a senior marjoring in art, said she was one of the students that had to evacuate the Student Union.
"I was just waiting for my next class," Hernandez said. "It was dark for several minutes then a lady on the PA said everyone needed to vacate the building."
Hernandez mentioned that the Student Union was not completely dark due to the skylights.
"It was dark, but it wasn't that bad," Hernandez said. "Everyone walked out calmly and actually some people didn't want to leave."
Michelle Garcia, a senior majoring in advertising, was working on a final paper when the lights went out.
"I was sitting up on the third floor working on my paper, and then suddenly all the lights went out," Garcia said. "I quickly started pressing 'save' on my computer because I didn't want to lose my paper."
Several classes in the Art building were moved out to the lawn so students could finish work on their laptops.
"We contacted PG&E to find out if there was … any information that they could lend us," Richardson said. "They said everything was fine on their line."
He explained that the campus plant recieves electricity from PG&E in addition to producing energy with a natural-gas-powered turbine generator.
Richardson said that the plant does not produce enough electricity to power the campus on its own. He said its main purpose is to provide steam and chilled water to campus.
Nevertheless, Richardson said, a glitch in the plant is enough to cause a campus power outage.
Richardson said he hoped to fix the fault in the transformer by adjusting a part called the resistance temperature detector, which was situated on the transformer itself. He said that while he was making that adjustment the power went out.
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