Contact: Harriet Laird
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Most of the Starkville campus of Mississippi State University will be impacted by two power outages planned by the university's public utility providers.
The Starkville Electric Department, in conjunction with the Tennessee Valley Authority, has announced plans for two city-wide power outages on Sunday [May 19] and June 23. The planned outages will begin at 12:01 a.m. on each of the dates, and each outage is expected to last about five hours, according to SED general manager Terry N. Kemp in a recent letter to customers.
"These outages are necessary because TVA is nearing completion of a major transmission project that will have positive impacts on both our city and the surrounding area," Kemp said in the letter. "The final stages of this $20 million project will be connection to the Starkville Electric primary substation."
J.D. Hardy, MSU's mechanical and energy engineer, said that university officials including the university's Crisis Action Team have met to address the possible impacts of the outage and have formulated a plan to be "proactive" in working to minimize negative impacts.
"MSU Campus Services personnel are doing everything possible to mitigate the impact of the outage," said Hardy. "However, we are still encouraging all campus entities to take every precaution they deem necessary in anticipation of a five-hour power outage."
MSU Director of University Relations Sid Salter said that the university had been advised that Starkville Electric intends to keep the power to the MSU Research Park online during the outage, but that the main campus -- including the College of Veterinary Medicine -- would be impacted.
"All 4-County Electric Power Association customers -- including North Farm and South Farm on the MSU campus -- should not be impacted by the outage," said Salter. "The university has utilized this period of advance notice of the planned outage to do everything possible to ensure that redundancies and generators protect research projects."
For more information, contact the MSU Office of University Relations at 662-325-7454 or 601-507-8004 or contact Starkville Electric at 662-323-3133. Campus personnel who have questions regarding generators or other redundant systems used to mitigate the power outage should call J.D. Hardy at 662-325-5899. For more information about Mississippi State University, visit www.msstate.edu.