Gwen Domine
Junior Editor
Dorms were filled with silence as fans, noise machines and air purifiers abruptly shut off from 12 a.m. to 4 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 25 as a planned power outage took place around campus. Duck River Electric Area Manager Tommy Campbell Facilities said in a notice that the outage will take place because the Tennessee Valley Authority “must make some emergency repairs inside the Sewanee [power] substation” near the Sewanee Bookstore because of a fire days before. The TVA preserved the power with last minute repairs.
On Tuesday, Sept. 22, the fire at the substation left thousands without power for the morning. The outage occurred around 9:10 a.m., after which the Sewanee Volunteer Fire Department arrived on scene and was able to put out the blaze. Power was returned to the community at around 10:26 a.m. Rumors spread that the fire was caused by a squirrel tampering with the substation, which serves as Sewanee’s electricity transfer station. These rumors were confirmed, and the dead squirrel was found at the scene.
According to Provost Scott Wilson, after the initial outage, Sewanee’s electric company, Duck River Electric, was able to enact a temporary solution to the outage consisting of creating an area around the substation that allowed power to be restored. In the early morning of Friday, Sept. 25, the Tennessee Valley Authority was able to go in and make their more permanent repairs during the planned power outage from midnight to four a.m. that day.
Sewanee is just one of the many schools and universities the TVA covers, and one of their focuses in electrical safety is how the association is qualified in fixing the fire damage. The TVA, beginning from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, has grown into the nation’s largest public power provider. According to their website, they serve more than 10 million people across seven states with a specialty in energy, environment and economy.
The planned power outage was executed with the help of Sewanee’s Facilities Management, a department determined to “maintain an attractive, clean, and safe learning, living, and teaching environment”, according to the Sewanee website. Places like The Pub and the duPont library closed early for the night of Sept. 24, and resident hall leaders reminded students to be aware if they’re locked outside during the outage.
Wilson hopes not to see more outages in the future, but this issue — of the guilty squirrel — was an unprecedented one that had not occurred at the Sewanee substation before.
“We have had problems like this once before, but it was one of the other stations, not the one right in town,” Wilson said. “This is the first time that we’ve had that happen, as far as I know.”
Last May, the TVA interfered with the substation to conduct a transfer of transformers, noted to DREMC for needing emergency repairs. This resulted in a planned power outage as well, but like Wilson expressed, this is the first fire that caused one.
The Sewanee Children’s Center, located only a few buildings away from the fire, was dismissed due to the event and the outages. Sewanee Elementary School, however, continued classes as close to normal as possible for the hour and a quarter the power was out. Some, although not all, of the buildings at Sewanee are equipped with backup generators in the event of a power outage. The Sewanee Police Department building and McClurg both have generators, and McClurg continued to serve meals throughout the outage.
Wilson expressed gratitude that the fire was contained so quickly, and that classes were able to continue once it was back on.“I was actually teaching at the time the electricity went out in the building,” Wilson said. “We were very fortunate that it didn’t spread — with the children’s center and the elementary school right there, that would have been really bad.”
Some students were interrupted by the Sept. 22 power outage, which disrupted Grace Olinger (C ‘30)’s schedule. “The power outage canceled my 9:30 a.m. class, but I still ate breakfast at McClurg,” Olinger said. “Apparently my dorm was out of power, but I didn’t realize at first.” McClurg’s power generator ensured that the dining hall was one of the few buildings with electricity.
After the planned power outage, the TVA needed to ensure no other damage could be created or spread. We are lucky that Sewanee is covered by such an authority and that we can count on the TVA for support in events like these in the future. But for now, let’s hope squirrels don’t find their way in the substation again.