For those of you who have been on campus this summer, you’ve probably heard that power in the HUB failed last Thursday, and continued to be less than reliable through Monday. For those of you who have not, rest assured that it should be taken care of long before you move back in.

The initial power outage on Thursday was caused by a transformer failure in the bookstore. General electrical sketchiness continued consistently through Friday and power was interrupted as late as Monday. As of this afternoon, electricity in the HUB is fully operational, thanks to the installation of a temporary replacement transformer. However, any current outages are caused by attempts to fix the electricity, explains university spokesperson Annemarie Mountz.

Editor’s Note: The orginial version of this article incorrectly attributed the following quote to Paul Ruskin, of OPP. It was in fact given to Onward State by Annemarie Mountz.

Since it is a temporary solution, we’ve been monitoring it to make sure no additional problems developed. Yesterday, we saw the load increase on the temporary transformer and it was nearing capacity. We took steps to reduce the strain on the system, closing the Computer Store in the HUB in the morning. At around 3 p.m. we needed to interrupt electric service to the HUB for a few hours to enable us to reroute electrical service and reduce the demands on the temporary transformer.

Mountz also said the service will continue to run on this, plus another, transformer “until the new, permanent transformer can be built, shipped, and installed.” If there continues to be strain on the electric system, then power will have to be interrupted in order to fix that problem. However, the second transformer should be in by the end of this week, and the permanent one hopefully soon after.

[Photo Credit: Tina Hay via Penn Stater Magazine]