Power outage on Dec. 12 scheduled for routine Power Assurance Test of the Generation Plant
On Dec. 12, 91ΒιΆΉΜμΓΐ Campus Services will conduct the annual Power Assurance Test of the Generation Plant to verify its ability to operate during a prolonged area-wide power outage. Power will be shut down and taken off the Starkville Utilitiesβ system at 3:30 a.m. and will be off for up to 60 minutes until power is restored by the 91ΒιΆΉΜμΓΐ Power Generation Plant. Over the next three and a half hours, the 91ΒιΆΉΜμΓΐ Facilities Management personnel will operate the 26 Megawatt turbine system through various generation modes, verifying the systemβs proper operation during an extended outage. During this testing, further outages are unlikely but may occur. Normal utility power will be restored from Starkville Utilitiesβ system before 7:30 a.m.
This outage will not affect the areas served by 4-County Power Association or Starkville Utilities connections, such as Technology Park, North Farm, Softball & Tennis, and South Farm.
The main purpose of the 91ΒιΆΉΜμΓΐ Power Generation Plant is to function as a Peak-Shaving Plant, reducing demand on Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) electrical power grid. During peak-shaving, the plant picks up all but 1 MW of 91ΒιΆΉΜμΓΐβs electrical demand. This demand is approximately 21 MW in the midst of summer when all of the universityβs cooling systems are engaged.Β
A secondary purpose of the plant is to provide power when an area wide outage occurs that will last for a significant duration. For this situation, planning and preparation for this type of failure is on-going in Campus Services. The ability to fully power the university was illustrated during the loss of the TVA feeder on September 1st that feeds parts of Starkville, including 91ΒιΆΉΜμΓΐβs main campus. The Power Generation Plant was able to restore power to campus while TVA determined the issue and restored the feeder.
βThe generation plant has been in place since 2005. Although the facility operates frequently in peak-shaving mode, we have employed back-up power capabilities of the plant a few times when TVA and Starkville Utilities had system disruptions or were performing maintenance on their electrical distribution infrastructure,βΒ 91ΒιΆΉΜμΓΐ Director for Facilities Management Tommy Verdell said. βThose area-wide utility outages demonstrate the benefit of this plant to our campus.βΒ