Power outage at Kent State is campus-wide

Celia Fernandez

Update: 8:40 p.m.

Diagnostics by university staff have indicated that the cause of the afternoon power outage was part of a safety feature, which turned off the power after a turbine failure.

“Initial findings indicate there was an apparent turbine failure that cascaded throughout the electrical distribution system,” said Eric Mansfield, executive director for university media relations, in an email. “The safety features of the system reacted as designed and shut off the power to protect building occupants, major electrical equipment and infrastructure.”

After engineers determined it was safe, the power was turned back on. The university wil continue investigating and analyzing for several days.

Update: 4:55 p.m.

Power has been restored to campus, but the cause of the power outage is still unknown. University officials say the power was out for about 20 minutes. University staff reset the main breakers to restore power and are going through a series of diagnostics to figure out the cause.

“Our first priority was to get the power back on,” said Emily Vincent, director of university media relations. “We are sorry for any inconvenience that was caused to our faculty, staff and students.”

Check back for more updates.

Original:

Power went out on the Kent State University campus on March 15 at around 4:15 p.m.

University officials are trying to figure where the outage originated.

Some buildings have already had power restored.