A blown fuse caused an electrical power outage yesterday in Maxwell, Channing Cox, and Thayer School of Engineering.
Facilities Operations and Management Assistant Director Stephen Mischissin said power was out for a little over an hour.
"Until we troubleshooted the problem and found where the fuse was," he said.
The cause of the blown fuse was unknown, Mischissin said, although he cited increased summer air conditioning as a possible culprit for the increased need for power.
"We have electric chillers in Murdough that feed Byrne Hall and Murdough as well as a steam absorption chiller," he said. "We normally operate the electric chiller but may find that during peak times, we might have to run the steam absorption chiller instead of the electric to reduce electric load."
"It was not related to construction in that area," he said. "Usually when a fuse blows, it is indicative of a potential overload so we are checking the fuse circuits and continuing to do analysis. We do not know all the buildings that were impacted."
The central fuses are utilized in a "split loop system" which makes determining the affected buildings difficult, Mischissin said.
"Half the buildings are fed on one side and the other half on the other side," he said. "We do not know if both sides went down or just half of the buildings" in the River area.
The west side of the College, including the Thayer School of Engineering, Amos Tuck School of Business Management and the river apartments and dormitories are powered on a separate electrical feed than the rest of campus, Mischissin said.
The blown fuse is part of a main transformer circuit that is a final safeguard for circuit breakers in individual buildings, Associate Director of FOM John Gratiot said.
"Fuses are made to blow and that protects the cables," Mischissin said. "What we are looking at is what could have caused it. We are not sure where the problem will be."
Gratiot said a similar phenomenon happened last summer in the same buildings.
"This happened before when we had a couple of fuses blow on the main incoming line," he said. "Having it happen a second time gives us concern and tells us we need to go in and do further investigation."
It was strange that the main fuse blew as opposed to an individual building, Gratiot said. Each building should have its own fail-safe.
"This indicates that something else may be going on," he said. "If none of these buildings overloaded individually, but all the buildings are collectively near peak load, there is a potential possibility that the fuses at the main could blow."
"We look at this as an inconvenience to lots of people," Gratiot said. "The system is designed to protect and the protection system works but we need to make sure it is not working in an improper manner."
"This should not happen in the middle of the afternoon on a Tuesday," he added.
