[39086] in Hotline Meeting
Power Outage August 7 , 1997
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (William Wohlfarth)
Fri Aug 8 08:13:07 1997
From: William Wohlfarth <wpwohlfa@PLANT.MIT.EDU>
To: "'plant-notify@mit.edu'" <plant-notify@MIT.EDU>
Date: Fri, 8 Aug 1997 07:39:43 -0400
At approximately 5:35pm on August 7, 1997 a manhole explosion in the
Kendall Sq area caused Cambridge Electric to loose Kendall Station. MIT
lost all power and the gas turbine tripped. Power was fully restored at
7pm.
At approximately 7:05pm, a second manhole explosion,caused 1 fatality,
and injurys to 4 other Cambridge Electric utilitymen including a
Cambridge Policeman. Putnam Station was also tripped and MIT lost all
power again.
At approximately 10:30pm, MIT had power restored to all buildings within
our distribution system. Several East campus ( E28, E32, E42, E56, E60,
NE43)and North/Northwest buildings( N42, N51/52, N57, NW10, NW12, NW14,
NW15, NW17, NW20, NW21, NW22, NW30, NW61, NW62, W11, WW15) which are fed
directly from Cambridge Electric, were restored by Cambridge Electric
personal.
Cambridge Electric is still sorting out the chain of events. At last
discussions with them, a total of 3 manhole explosions had taken place.
Additional information will be posted when available.
Bill Wohlfarth, P.E.
Senior Electrical Engineer
