Annual Power Assurance Test set for Dec. 14
On Dec. 14, 桃花直播 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.聽Power will be shut down and taken off the Starkville Utilities鈥� system at 3:30 a.m. and will be off for up to 60 minutes until power is restored by the 桃花直播 Power Generation Plant.聽Over the next three and a half hours, the 桃花直播 Facilities Management personnel will operate the 26 Megawatt turbine system through various generation modes, verifying the system鈥檚 proper operation during an extended outage.聽During this testing, further outages are unlikely but may occur.聽Normal utility power will be restored from Starkville Utilities鈥� 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 and Tennis, and South Farm.
The main purpose of the 桃花直播 Power Generation Plant is to function as a peak-shaving plant, reducing demand on Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) electrical power grid.聽During peak-shaving, the plant picks up all but 1 MW of 桃花直播鈥檚 electrical demand.聽This demand is approximately 21 MW in the midst of summer when all of the university鈥檚 cooling systems are engaged.聽
A secondary purpose of the plant is to provide power when an area wide outage occurs that will last for a significant duration.聽For this situation, planning and preparation for this type of failure is on-going in Campus Services.聽The ability to fully power the university was illustrated during the loss of the TVA feeder on Sept. 1 that feeds parts of Starkville, including 桃花直播鈥檚 main campus.聽The Power Generation Plant was able to restore power to campus while TVA determined the issue and restored the feeder.
鈥淲e test to ensure the system will operate when we really need it, such as September 1st,鈥� explained 桃花直播 Associate Director for Utilities Dave Maharrey. 鈥淩eoccurring tests are necessary for continued reliability of the university mission.鈥�
鈥淭he generation plant has been in place since 2005.聽Although the facility operates frequently in peak-shaving mode, we have only tested the back-up power capabilities of the plant a few times when TVA and Starkville Utilities were performing maintenance on their electrical distribution infrastructure鈥澛爏aid 桃花直播 Interim Director for Planning, Design, Construction Administration J.D. Hardy.聽鈥淭hose area-wide utility outages demonstrate the benefit of this plant to our campus.鈥�