(January 2, 2013) – Fresno State will re-open Thursday, Jan. 3, after a one-day closure for emergency maintenance resulting from a power failure.
Winter intercession classes, which were accommodated in alternate locations, will return to normal classrooms on Thursday.
The issues began Sunday at 2 a.m. with a power surge that disrupted power on campus. A secondary significant outage occurred at approximately 2 p.m., resulting in widespread power losses on campus.
“We don’t know the cause of the power disruption, but the result was a severe malfunction of our campus main switch and other secondary power feeds,” said Bob Boyd, associate vice president for Facilities Management
“Our campus infrastructure is 40-plus years old, and parts are no longer manufactured or maintained, so we had to scramble to find compatible used parts,” Boyd said.
Efforts to deal with the outage began immediately, said Cynthia Teniente-Matson, vice president for Administration and Chief Financial Officer.
Generators were placed in critical areas to provide continuous electrical service and food in the dining hall was moved to freezer units in Agricultural Operations. Public safety measures were taken to secure all buildings.
Power was maintained in Save Mart Center, Student Recreation Center and critical areas in the University Agricultural Lab (the farm). Some residence halls had power and the small number of students who are staying in their rooms during winter break were accommodated.
Matson said the power was out for 72 hours before repairs were completed Tuesday night. “The campus closure Wednesday was necessary because it takes at least 12 hours to recirculate our aged heating systems and to ensure all building systems such as power, alarms, water are properly functioning.”
Matson said funding for a campus infrastructure project to update the aging equipment has been on the list of capital California State University projects for several years.
