High voltage work on campus

UPDATE (Aug. 7, 2:30 p.m.):  There is a scheduled power outage for the west campus on Friday, Aug. 9, from 6–8 a.m. Affected buildings include:

• Gordan Hartlieb Hall 
• Automotive & Diesel Technology
• Lucy Cuddy Hall
• Beatrice McDonald Hall
• Sally Monserud Hall
• Professional Studies Building
• Wendy Williamson Auditorium
• Eugene Short Hall
• Allied Health Sciences
• Rasmuson Hall

ML+P will be connecting to the new switch cabinet, see project 2 below. UAA Facilities Maintenance will be on site.

Original post:
There are two separate electrical projects on campus occurring almost simultaneously. There is no scheduled power outage. However, with work on the east campus electrical primary, please be aware there is an elevated chance that an outage may occur due to human error or mechanical failure.

Project 1: Preventative maintenance work on high voltage switchgear A
Dave Cannon with Anvil Corporation has been contracted to do the work, Aug. 6 and 7, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. No power outages are expected from this work, though we will need to be on heightened alert that we could experience one. Outages have occurred in the past when this work has been done. They have been brief and do not affect the entire campus but will affect entire buildings.
Should an outage occur the following buildings will be affected:

    •    Social Sciences Building
    •    Energy Module 2
    •    Central Parking Garage
    •    Natural Sciences Building
    •    Engineering Building
    •    Student Union
    •    Campus Bookstore
    •    Wells Fargo Sports Complex
    •    Energy Module 1
    •    ANSEP Building

Project 2: ML+P upgrade of the west campus primary metering and switching cabinet
This project involves the UAA-owned east campus (see building list above) high voltage primary and west campus high voltage primary interface with ML+P just to the west of Rasmuson Hall. Our high voltage system was set up for a seamless power transfer between feeders, so unless something goes wrong, no outage for the East Campus is being planned at this time.

ML+P will be replacing the metering and switch cabinets. To accomplish this, we will be using our east campus switch cabinets to transfer power between our parallel feeders. The intent is to be able to shut off the power so ML+P can remove and adjust the cables. ML+P is currently investigating the job and we expect them to begin the actual work next week. We will issue an update when the work progresses, with planned impacts to West Campus.

Please refer your questions about these projects to Tom Sternberg, CFM, director of Facilities Maintenance and Operations: thsternberg@uaa.alaska.edu or (907) 786-6947 (office) or (907) 980-6865 (cell).