On Sunday, February 16th, at approximately 4:55 p.m., high winds caused a tree to fall on Haverford College’s power lines near the Nature Trail, leading to a campus-wide power outage. Power was restored to most of the campus within minutes. Two days later, on Tuesday, February 18th, at around 5:30 p.m., the College lost power again. This time, the outage lasted for over two hours, disrupting Dining Services, key card access to dorms, research labs, and WIFI across campus.
Donald Campbell, Director of Facilities, explained the cause of the initial power outage on Sunday. “Along the Nature Trail, a tree fell over. Two of the high-voltage wires touched each other. That shorted everything out.” Three 1 megawatt generators, installed about twenty-five years ago, activated immediately after Sunday’s power outage, restoring electricity.
Facilities contacted PECO, the local energy provider, on Sunday, hoping someone would come out to remove the tree blocking the power lines. However, since the generators had restored power to campus, PECO didn’t prioritize the case. According to Campbell, PECO had reported about 900 power outages affecting 150,000 people in the area.
Facilities followed up with PECO on Monday and early on Tuesday. “We called our account manager and said, look, we can see it’s just a tree. All you have to do is pull the tree off,” Campbell said. Once again, no one from PECO came out to Haverford.
At about 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Campbell and Robert Harper, Manager of Central Plant/HVAC Services, checked the fuel levels of the three generators. “The generators were running great, no problem,” Campbell confirmed. He then left campus for the day. “At 5:15 p.m., I get home and I get a call. There’s no power on campus.”
One of the three generators had failed, leaving the remaining two unable to support the campus load. “This caused the entire system to trip,” Campbell explained. Although Facilities managed to restart the faulty generator, it failed to synchronize with the others.
Finally, at around 7:15 p.m., PECO’s tree contractor arrived on campus and removed the tree from the power lines, allowing the campus to return to the grid at around 8:15 p.m.
Since Tuesday, Facilities has performed initial testing on the faulty generator. “We think it’s something in the controls, but we can’t figure out what it is yet, ” said Campbell. This is surprising because Facilities replaced the controls about five years ago. Facilities has decided to resume testing over spring break, when most students will be off campus.
Unfortunately, that means the school is currently at risk for another outage. “Right now, if we were to lose power again, the generators may come up and they may not.”
Haverford’s generators have proven more reliable in the past. During a winter power outage about six years ago, they provided continuous power for a week. Campbell said other schools in the area, like Bryn Mawr and Villanova, were forced to send students home.
Campbell emphasized that his primary concern during the power outages was student safety. “Every building should have emergency lights, and if they don’t come on, we’d replace them,” he said. He also worries about temperatures dropping inside the buildings in the winter months. During the outage, Campbell was in communication with Bi-Co Executive Director of Campus Safety, Lillian Burroughs, and Vice President and Dean of the College, John McKnight.
Campbell’s next concern was the refrigeration and freezer units across campus. While The Coop has a backup generator, neither the Dining Center nor the Marian E. Koshland Integrated Natural Sciences Center (KINSC) has one. “Our big concern is safety, but also ensuring we don’t lose critical items like research materials, experiments, and food,” Campbell said.
Last week’s power outages demonstrate the College’s vulnerability to widespread power loss. The campus could face further disruptions until the generator issues are resolved and backup systems are improved.
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