The Liberal Arts Campus suffered a “catastrophic electrical failure” according to the strategic account manager for Sunbelt Rentals, shutting down the campus Tuesday morning until 9 a.m.
The power generator at LBCC’s power building, which is located next to the P building, stopped working, and Southern California Edison (SCE) got a call to find a solution.
“We got the call on Saturday around 12:30 (p.m.). They’re putting in new transformers so the school has more transformation,” William Lee, the strategic account manager for Sunbelt Rentals, said.
A transformer is an electrical device that takes a given input voltage and changes it to a different output voltage according to Maddox Industrial Transformer (MIT), a transformer making company.
Transformers are used to regulate the amount of force the electricity has from the constant flow of electrical energy needed to power things.
No root cause was determined on what happened to make the power go out.
SCE gave its prediction on when the school would have its power back once the work was complete.
“SCE informed LBCC that the power should return by 6 a.m. (Tuesday morning),” Stacey Toda, LBCC’s public relations official said.
Sunbelt Rentals and Walker Bros are the subcontractors that are working on both the temporary and long-term solution to the electrical problem.
With the help of SCE and its subcontractors, LBCC was able to temporarily distribute power to the school with six generators that circled the power building.
The generators were supplied by Sunbelt Rentals as a quick fix before the transformer was replaced.
“There are six 500 kW diesel generators here from Sunset Rentals. These are what’s giving the school power until the generator’s fixed,” Lee stated.
The transformer was set to be removed Tuesday night and the generators continue providing power to the campus on Wednesday.