2008 Woodie Awards
URI prepares for scheduled blackout
Justin Oswald
Issue date: 3/13/08 Section: Campus
03/13/08 - From the Ryan Center to Upper College Road, the University of Rhode Island will be a little darker this Sunday.
The university is preparing for a blackout, which will allow its main power line from National Grid to be connected to a substation being built on Flagg Road. The substation will power the Center for Biological and Life Sciences, a future pharmacy building and a proposed nursing facility. The three are collectively known as the North District.
Power is slated to be off from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. An original proposal called for an outage from 7:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m., but Dave Lamb, utilities engineer at URI, said that he did not think that was enough time to get the job done.
Although the current plan predicts a 7:30 p.m. end, that is on the cautious side, according to Lamb.
"Any time earlier than that and the power will come on when the project is done," Lamb said.
Despite the entire campus being affected, the possibility of problems arising is slim.
"Any critical loads generally have generators on campus," Lamb said. "There are some buildings that have research going on that may not have alternate power sources and we're adjusting those on an individual basis."
The police department has a generator and an alternate power line running off of Route 138. Generators were requested for projects requiring electricity at all times.
"There are concerns about research projects, freezers, or any processes that any of the staff feel need attention," Lamb said.
Morrill and Woodward halls will receive generators to keep electric systems operating.
The procedure has been done before, but only on a smaller scale.
"They typically go pretty smooth," Lamb said. "Planned outages we've had in the past, which have been focused on certain areas of the campus, but this particular outage is the entire campus."
Sunday, March 16, was decided upon because it is during the university's spring break, when many of the dormitories are closed.
Planning for the outage began in January, when Lamb sent out a notice to get feedback on potential problems. This helped determine the date that would have the least impact on the university.
The university is preparing for a blackout, which will allow its main power line from National Grid to be connected to a substation being built on Flagg Road. The substation will power the Center for Biological and Life Sciences, a future pharmacy building and a proposed nursing facility. The three are collectively known as the North District.
Power is slated to be off from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. An original proposal called for an outage from 7:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m., but Dave Lamb, utilities engineer at URI, said that he did not think that was enough time to get the job done.
Although the current plan predicts a 7:30 p.m. end, that is on the cautious side, according to Lamb.
"Any time earlier than that and the power will come on when the project is done," Lamb said.
Despite the entire campus being affected, the possibility of problems arising is slim.
"Any critical loads generally have generators on campus," Lamb said. "There are some buildings that have research going on that may not have alternate power sources and we're adjusting those on an individual basis."
The police department has a generator and an alternate power line running off of Route 138. Generators were requested for projects requiring electricity at all times.
"There are concerns about research projects, freezers, or any processes that any of the staff feel need attention," Lamb said.
Morrill and Woodward halls will receive generators to keep electric systems operating.
The procedure has been done before, but only on a smaller scale.
"They typically go pretty smooth," Lamb said. "Planned outages we've had in the past, which have been focused on certain areas of the campus, but this particular outage is the entire campus."
Sunday, March 16, was decided upon because it is during the university's spring break, when many of the dormitories are closed.
Planning for the outage began in January, when Lamb sent out a notice to get feedback on potential problems. This helped determine the date that would have the least impact on the university.