The morning of the U’s “Blackout” football game against TCU, a real blackout swept the campus, and it’s only a small part of a larger problem.
At 10 a.m. Thursday, lower campus lost power because of a failed circuit, which originated from a switch at the Eccles Broadcast Center. Most of the 12 affected buildings were only out of power for about five minutes. The Union and parts of OSH suffered the most, having lost power for more than half an hour.
“We’ve repaired the switch…but the whole system in general is past its use and overtaxed,” said Cory Higgins, director of Plant Operations.
Replacing the entire system would be a $112 million endeavor, which is beyond reach in the U’s current economic hard times. The U receives about $1 million to $2 million a year from the Utah Legislature to fix its electrical problems, but it isn’t nearly enough, Higgins said. Plant Operations plans to bring the issue up with the Legislature next year, but hopes are low, he said.
Blackouts aren’t just a problem for administrators. They are academically frustrating for students as well.
“All of the students working on their papers at the computers lost all of their data,” said Whit Hollis, the Union director.
The electrical grid will function for at least another year or two, but sooner or later its last legs will give out and the U will be without any power, Higgins said.
“We’ve asked the state to address the concern, but until then we’ll just have to do what we can,” he said.
Rocky Mountain Power spokesman Dave Eskelsen said that they didn’t detect any electrical disruptions at the U. Eskelsen said there were suspicions that the blackout was a publicity stunt for the Utah football team’s Thursday night home game against TCU, because the theme of the game was “Blackout.”
Hollis assured that the Union would never cut power to the building without any kind of warning, and whatever happened was not a stunt on the part of the school.