Blackout leaves URI campus in the dark

A power outage occurred at 9:15 yesterday morning, affecting between 17,000 to 20,000 homes and businesses, including the University of Rhode Island, according to National Grid.  The blackout was caused by an explosion and subsequent fire at the power substation on Shumankanuc Hill Road in Charlestown. 

Chief of the Charlestown Fire District, Don Rathbone told the Associated Press the cause of the explosion was most likely arcing of electrical equipment.  Fire crews put out the blaze caused by the arcing, which had spread from the substation to the surrounding grass.

National Grid spokesman David Graves issued a statement to the AP that the outage affected Westerly, Hopkinton, North Kingstown, South Kingstown and Charlestown. Narragansett, as well as other parts of South and Kent counties, experienced power surges followed by a brief outage that lasted about a minute. 

Most of campus was affected by the hour and 45-minute long outage, with the exception of those buildings east of Upper College Road, which experienced a momentary five-minute lapse of power. The majority of classrooms on campus are on the west side of Upper College Road and were affected.

Katherine Pelton, a sophomore at URI, was in class when the power went out.

"I was in Music 101 and the first half of the test was listening and identifying [different musical pieces]. The power went off, then back on, then off for good. The professor found out the whole campus was out. We couldn't finish the whole test, so we [have] to finish it Wednesday."

National Grid informed the Director of the Memorial Union, Bruce Hamilton, around 10 a.m. that power would return in approximately an hour. The school sent an email shortly after stating that classes would continue as scheduled at discretion of individual professors.

Power was restored to all campus buildings around 11 a.m. When the power returned, the school sent out a follow up email reiterating the previous message. Despite the official resumption of classes, some professors had trouble accessing electronically locked rooms during and after the loss of power.

The cause of the explosion that triggered the outage is still under investigation.