Campus closure notification: Planned power outage May 16–19

Campus will be closed due to a planned power outage Sunday, May 16, at 7 a.m., until Wednesday, May 19, at 7 p.m. The outage is part of a necessary maintenance project to replace aging electrical equipment.

As Venessa Macro, chief administration officer, mentioned in an email to campus April 19, faculty and staff will receive a calendar invite to serve as a reminder for the scheduled outage and campus closure.

Important to note: ITS systems such as Outlook, Banner, and Blackboard will remain available during the outage allowing faculty and staff to work from a location off campus.

Power down your electronic devices!
Please turn off your computer, monitor(s), printers, and other personal electronic devices in your office by 3 p.m. on Friday, May 14. ITS staff will check that all printers and classroom devices are shut down beginning at 3:30 p.m. Friday, May 14. They will not check individual computers and monitors—so make sure you’ve completely powered down. All devices should remain off until power is restored.

The ITS Support Center will be closed during the outage for in-person assistance, but you may still visit the service portal at service.drake.edu/its or call 515-271-3001 with issues.

FPM will clean-out and unplug all breakroom refrigerators. If there is a dorm size refrigerator in your office, please unplug the unit and leave the door open placing a towel to catch any water defrosted from the freezer section. If the refrigerator is an old, inefficient model, consider contacting FPM to recycle it or upgrade to an energy star model.

About the project:
Facilities Planning and Management is working with Waldinger Corporation to replace the main campus switchgear and electric distribution switches at the Forest Avenue power plant. At the same time, MidAmerican Energy will be replacing the electrical service lines to the power plant. This electrical service and switchgear provide electricity to the 39 buildings and four parking lots on campus. (insert link to pdf outage map) With no power at these buildings—and in consideration of the safety of faculty, staff, students, and visitors—the campus will be closed from Sunday, May 16, at 7 a.m., until Wednesday, May 19, at 7 p.m.

Recent maintenance of the switchgear revealed that the equipment was not able to be exercised as necessary. If the switchgear were to fail, it could cause substantial power loss across campus. Due to the severity of the potential impact, replacement of the 1980s era switchgear and electric distribution switches became a deferred maintenance priority.

Questions or concerns?
FPM realizes the potential disruption this work causes. We appreciate everyone’s understanding in this matter. If you have any concerns, please submit them through this Qualtrics form. Your feedback will help us address broad concerns, as well as gather more specific issues that we can work through with individual departments.

Kevin Moran, Executive Director, Facilities Planning and Management