The university will undergo a planned four-hour power interruption on Thursday, Nov. 11 (Veterans Day) that will affect a majority of the buildings on campus.
The outage from 6 to 10 a.m. is expected to have minimal impact because the campus will be closed in observance of the federal holiday. The Science Laboratory (Building 3), Biotechnology Building (Building 4), College of Science (Building 8), the new Secoya and Sicomoro residence halls and the Centerpointe dining hall will not be affected by the interruption.
The outage will allow campus crews to investigate the current electrical system and enable the Electrical Infrastructure Upgrade (EIU) Project to move forward. Crews plan to document the installation of the system and make any needed alterations in the current system to be compatible with the new power grid.
Buildings that will be impacted by the planned outage:
- Building 1
- Don B. Huntley College of Agriculture (Building 2)
- College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences (Building 5)
- College of Education and Integrative Studies (Building 6)
- College of Engineering (Building 9)
- Art Department and Engineering Annex (Building 13)
- Encinitas Residence Hall (Building 20)
- Montecito Residence Hall (Building 21)
- Alamitos Residence Hall (Building 22)
- Aliso Residence Hall (Building 23)
- Music Building (Building 24)
- Drama Department/Theatre (Building 25)
- Fruit/Crops Unit (Building 28)
- W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Center (Building 29)
- Agricultural Unit (Building 30)
- Poultry Unit (Building 31)
- Beef Unit (Building 32)
- Feed Mill (Building 33)
- Meat Laboratory (Building 34)
- Darlene May Gymnasium (Building 41)
- Kellogg Arena (Building 43)
- BRIC Swimming Pool (Building 44)
- Apparel Merchandising and Management (Building 45)
- Student Health Services (Building 46)
- Training Center (Building 49)
- Palmitas Residence Hall (Building 57)
- Cedritos Residence Hall (Building 58)
- La Cienega Center (Building 59)•
- Rose Float Lab (Building 105)
- Pesticide Building (Building 65)
- Animal Health Science (Building 67)
- Hay Barn (Building 68)
- Los Olivos Commons (Building 70)
- Recreation/Maintenance (Building 71)
- Procurement/Receiving (Building 75)
- Facilities Management (Building 81)
- Facilities Management Warehouse (Building 82)
- Auto Shop (Building 83)
- English Language Institute (Building 86)
- Interim Design Center (Building 89)
- IT Operations (Building 91)
- Laboratory Facility (Building 92)
- Cultural Centers (Building 95)
- Campus Center (Building 97)
- Manor House (Building 111)
- Kellogg House (Building 112)
- Guest House Building (113)
- Other affected areas: Cistern (Building 141), Lower Reservoir (Building 142), electronic billboards, farm area, reclaimed water pump station, sewage lift station, Rose Garden, lights in parking lots, street lighting.
An unplanned power outage that struck the campus on Sept. 18 and blacked out a large portion of campus underscored the importance and urgency of the EIU Project. The electrical components of the current system have surpassed their service life and make the campus vulnerable to further power outages.
The documentation portion of the outage could take one or two hours. If alterations to the system cannot be completed on Nov. 11, a second four-hour interruption would need to be scheduled on Thanksgiving weekend, possibly on Nov. 26 or Nov. 27.
In addition, a complete campus power outage for three days has been scheduled on Dec. 28 to Dec. 30. During this outage, Southern California Edison (SCE) will disconnect lines from the old electrical system and re-connect them to the new state-of-the-art system. The campus will receive advance notice.
P2S, the licensed electrical engineers on the EIU project, developed, reviewed, and approved the outage plan and sequencing to minimize disruption on campus and safely complete the EIU project.
The $32-million EIU Project is replacing the aged electrical distribution infrastructure on campus. Once completed, the new electrical infrastructure will meet the power needs of the campus for the next 60 years and bring the campus current with electric code requirements.
The new electrical system will be the most sophisticated in the CSU system, utilizing fiber optic cables to communicate and offering immediate re-routing of electricity around failures and reducing the frequency and size of any unplanned outages.