Blair's power outages caused by faulty electrical equipment

Although school officials initially attributed Blair's recent string of power outages to increased power demands this year, MCPS electricians recently determined that the primary problem is in Blair's electrical equipment.

According to User Support Specialist Anne Wisniewski, electricians sent from the MCPS Randolph Maintenance Depot determined that such widespread outages could not have been caused by electronic appliance-related power surges. Instead, they believe the problem stems from either a damaged transformer or a control switch on the main power line that provides energy for Phase B and C of the building. The classrooms in the building are separated into three main phases (A, B and C), and the recent power outage problem has affected Phases B and C, which control the 40-50s hallways and the 60-70s hallways, respectively, for all three floors.

Other than localizing the problem, the electricians will not be able to determine the exact nature of the issue until another outage occurs; they already, however, requested to be contacted if or when one happens. "[The electricians] told [Building Engineer] Reginald Tobin that he was supposed to check the panel the next time it blows and give them the readings," said Wisniewski.

Tobin declined to comment, saying only that the building staff was "working on the problem."

It is uncertain when the next outage will occur, since the power has gone out less and less frequently during the past two months. "It's Murphy's Law, isn't it?" said Wisniewski. "If you need [something], it won't happen."

At first glance

When the power outages first occurred, they were largely attributed to increased power requirements for newly-installed equipment. Many of the school departments had recently received new refrigerators and microwave ovens, which Tobin had originally believed to be the main causes of the outages. "When turning on a toaster blacks out a whole room, you know the toaster's got to have some [electrical] pull," said Tobin.

Wisniewski had previously attributed the outages to the new computer equipment installed as part of the TechMod program. Without accounting for monitor requirements, the 769 Dell GX270s, each drawing as much as 210 watts of continuous power, represented a substantial increase from replaced Compaq 300 and 350s, which drew a maximum of only 145 watts, and the replaced iMac PowerPC G3s, which drew a maximum of only 150 watts.

However, Wisniewski found that the 160s and 170s halls which lost power had in fact retained the previous, low-drawing iMac computers. This oddity, she reasoned, was probably due to Blair's building plan. "The year they built Blair, someone in the county decided that the school should not have computer labs, and so they started planning the school without labs," said Wisniewski. "Midway through, they realized it was a bad idea, and they started putting the labs in. That's why [the non-business, non-Media Center labs] look so make-shifty." In addition, the Media Center, which had the heaviest concentration of the new Dell computers, was never hit by the outages that periodically plagued the 40-70s hallways.

The outages have also occurred during the day and night time hours, which seemed unusual to Wisniewski given the fact that in the evening, there should have been a much lower power drain.

She feels that the electrician's recent diagnosis better explains these irregularities and agrees with the new findings. "It could be that that the extra power caused the problem to manifest itself, but TechMod itself was not in any way, shape or form responsible for the problem," said Wisniewski.

Outside help

After a delay in MCPS interest regarding Blair's outages, Global Access (GA), the MCPS department that is responsible for computers and connectivity in the school system, became involved. GA was prompted to act after a principals' meeting revealed that other schools had experienced power issues after the TechMod initiative.

Wisniewski still believes that for Blair at least, TechMod was not the center of the issue. "I can't speak for the other schools, but the problem has been one inherent in Blair's power system and has possibly been with us since the school started," she said, adding that she is glad GA is getting involved because the group can more effectively prevent future equipment damage. "We were finding that the [day after a power outage, User Support] would have to come in and do a manual restart of some things which hadn't come up again after the outage," explained Wisniewski.

At any rate, Wisniewski finds comfort in knowing that someone is working on the problem. "My attitude right now is to watch and see what happens. [GA has] promised to look into it," she said.