Elizabethtown College suffered two major, campus-wide power outages Tuesday, Aug. 28 and Wednesday, Aug. 29. The first of the two power outages lasted from approximately 7 p.m. until 8:35 p.m. The second power outage occurred around the same time.
In a statement sent out to the campus community Aug. 28, Facilities Management and PPL, the local utility company, were notified of the power outage but could not pinpoint the exact source of the problem.
“PPL responded to campus and worked with the College’s Facilities Management team to restore power at approximately 8:35 p.m.,” the Campus News email stated. “There was no known cause for the power outage.”
The power outage Wednesday, Aug. 29 shared similar characteristics to the outage that happened the night before.
Senior Rebecca Easton was one of many students affected by the campuswide loss of electricity.
“I was living in Founders during both power outages, since they took place the same week as the mold issues in Hackman,” Easton said. “During the first power outage, I was just about to have a tutoring session at Learning Services. We ended up moving to an area in the BSC that still had emergency lights on, but it definitely affected our ability to stay focused and work efficiently. The second night, I was doing homework in my room, but still had enough daylight to finish it by the window.”
Although the power outages happened within a short time span, blackouts are a rare occurrence throughout the campus community.
According to the Facilities Management page of the College’s website, Facilities Management adheres to an energy conservation and waste reduction policy that reduces the College’s risk of reoccurring blackouts and energy waste.
“The College’s goal is to implement conservation and sustainability measures to allow us to use only the utilities needed to support the College’s educational mission,” the website states. “Through this policy, the Department of Facilities Management strives to achieve work and study conditions within the temperature standards throughout the campus.”
The website then lists the tips that Facilities Management follows when trying to save energy.
Some of these tips include maintaining reasonable temperature standards, using higher efficiency lighting, implementing HVAC and lighting control technologies and reducing air infiltration in areas that use mechanical cooling or air conditioning systems.
PPL offers similar tips on ways to save energy and money that can be found on their website: www.pplelectric.com/ways-to-save.
As for the cause of the freak power outages on campus, the answer remains unknown. Neither Facilities Management nor PPL could pinpoint the source of the subsequent blackouts.
No more campuswide power outages or power shortages have occurred since the blackout Wednesday, Aug. 29.
For more information on Facilities Management’s energy conservation and waste reduction policy, please visit www.etown.edu/offices/facilities-management.
For more information on the College’s local utilities provider, PPL, please visit www.pplelectric.com.
