Power supplies on the UC Davis campus were interrupted for just over an hour from 9 a.m. today, March 23. The outage occurred while technicians were testing connections to a new transformer substation extension.

Students are currently on spring break, and no classes are scheduled.

During the outage, the UC Davis Fire Department responded to an alarm at the North Entry parking structure, and to a first-aid call for a minor injury at Mrak Hall. There were no other reports of injuries. Power was fully restored by 10:10 a.m..

The new transformer substation extension is a $12.2 million capital project to increase electrical capacity and provide redundancy, said Ardie Dehghani, director of engineering for UC Davis Architects and Engineers. When it is operational, the extension will add 56 megavolts capacity to the 74.5 already available and provide a second PG&E feed to campus to prevent outages. The project has been in the commissioning phase for four weeks.

Facilities Management crews bypassed the new equipment to restore power and will troubleshoot the new system, said Chris Cioni, associate director for utilities.