HomeMy Public PortalAboutTown Hall Power issues 19 January 2017 - Ed LewisFrom: Driscoll Michael
To: Osmond, Marsha; Hand, JoAnna
Cc: Lewis, Edward; Dept. Heads; Dowdeot
Subject: Town Hall Power issues 19 January 2017
Date: Thursday, January 19, 2017 4:34:42 PM
Please include in today's Misc Items to Council.
From: Lewis, Edward
Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2017 4:26 PM
To: Driscoll, Michael <mdriscoll@watertown-ma.gov>
Cc: Magoon, Steven <smagoon@watertown-ma.gov>; Tracy, Thomas <ttracy@watertown-ma.gov>
Subject: Town Hall Power issues 19 January 2017
Mr. Driscoll,
Custodial staff left the Town Hall around 10:30pm on January 18th and all was in order.
When the DPW arrived to open the building on Thursday, January 19th at approximately 7:OOAM,
emergency lighting was on along with some of the buildings lights.
Eversource was immediately notified. They responded and were onsite within the hour. Preliminary
troubleshooting occurred upstream in the electrical grid (by the delta) and was determined not to
be the issue.
Eversource then focused the troubleshooting and found one of the two transformers that serve the
Town Hall had failed. At approximately 9:30am the second transformer failed and the building was
left without power.
Eversource provided an emergency generator and it arrived onsite around noon.
Main power to the building was restored around 2:OOPM.
For safety concerns power to Main Street west of the Town Hall was shut down for about 35
minutes.
One circuit in the server room proved troublesome and a work -around was implemented around
3:30PM to restore e-mail function. An electrical upgrade to this circuit will be completed by the
DPW on January 20th
Throughout the day the Town Hall remained open and available to serve the public as well as could
be done without computers.
The phones were down — messages could not be left.
The Town Hall, Library and Fire Station and Senior Center lost E-mail and internet access for the day.
Preliminary inspection of the transformers yielded no root cause — it was noted they were old.
Preliminary inspection of the Town Hall equipment had seven surge protectors damaged and will
need to be replaced, the heating system appears okay.
The Eversource provided generator is located on Thaxter Street between Town Hall and the library.
It is cabled into the Town Hall via a covered cable tray over the sidewalk. This unit will run 24 hours
a day until the transformers are replaced. A representative from Eversource or the generator
company will be onsite at all times when the generator is operating.
The transformers are located underground in the manhole at the rear of the Town Hall parking lot.
Standard operating procedure is to have Clean Harbors evaluate to confirm no hazardous
contaminants are present in the man -hole before replacement can begin. This is currently
underway.
Eversource is searching for a replacement transformer and need to have the Clean Harbors
evaluation completed and have a new transformer located before they can give a realistic time
frame for transformer replacement. The replacement may include expanding the size of the
manhole opening to accommodate the new transformer.
There will be a planned power outage after the transformer replacement is complete — expected
duration 1 to 2 hours. Eversource has been requested to provide advance notification of this — and
it was suggested that after hours or on the weekend may be a good time to complete this work.
A back-up generator to provide power to the Town Hall has been included in the CIP.
Best regards,
Ed Lewis
Energy Manager
Community Development & Planning
Town of Watertown
(P) 617-972-6417 EXT. 12215
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