Chilling Power Loss

By John Hickey
Bill Andrews, West Virginia University at Parkersburg’s veteran HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) technician, saved WVUP’s campus from extensive electrical damage through his alertness and quick action Aug.27.

That Saturday around 5 p.m. a storm knocked down four of Allegheny Power’s poles along Route 50 and knocked out power to WVUP. Allegheny said power might not be restored for 24 hours. Dave White, WVUP’s new assistant director of facilities and grounds, took steps to protect the school’s computer and refrigeration systems.

WVUP’s computers are protected against power loss by uninterruptible power supplies, battery systems that fail after about six hours. An uncontrolled shut-down wreaks havoc with the computer system’s subsequent capacity to function, so Dan Williamson, director of computer services, came in to shut down all the systems by the book. The food in the food service’s large freezers could not be allowed to defrost, so plans were set up to bring in refrigerated trucks.

The power suddenly came back on around 5:30 p.m., but Andrews noticed immediately that something was very wrong with Allegheny’s power feed. WVUP, like virtually all large institutions, uses three-phase power for the electric motors that keep everything on campus running. Andrews noticed that of the three gauges that register line voltage, two were ominously reading zero. Allegheny Power was getting only single-phase power to the school, which is fine for your home’s electric motors but which would quickly destroy the school’s equipment. Andrews grabbed the big handle of the main breaker and threw off the power before any major damage could be done.

Allegheny advised around 9:30 p.m. that proper three-phase power was flowing, and Lead Trades Specialist Bob Cooper powered everything up, bringing in the buildings unit by unit to avoid overloading. They hoped they had dodged the bullet.

But later White found that a motor in the air-conditioning control system had failed, along with a four-foot diameter diaphragm which helped control the chillers. This led to the air-conditioning breakdown which WVUP experienced in the following few days.

The chiller diaphragm was replaced Aug. 30 and the control motor was replaced Sept. 2, so by the time you read this, you should be cool.

Long-term, the air-conditioning system is scheduled for some major improvements. The larger of the school’s two big air-conditioning towers, built in 1969, had a life expectancy of 20-25 years, but it has lived to the ripe old age of 36, and it has “hardening of the arteries,” which has reduced its cooling capacity by half, White says. WVUP is putting together drawings and specifications in order to put out a request for bids on its replacement, projected to cost about $40,000, which White projects will be in place by Christmas of this year.

The increased capacity should make a big difference for WVUP’s Little Theater, which has suffered from poor ventilation. The theater was spiffed up this summer and a new, larger-capacity air-handling system is scheduled for December installation.

White came to WVUP after 23 years in Camden-Clark Memorial Hospital’s engineering department, where power could be a matter of life and death. The experience he and his people bring to WVUP undoubtedly helped in averting major damage on Aug. 27.