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Power Outage at Stanford University

emergency.stanford.edu

1–10 of 28 posts

Re: Power Outage at Stanford University

#3

Nothing works. Seems someone hacked the system

> Due to yesterday’s fire in the Emerald Hills area, the main Stanford campus lost the power supplied by PG&E’s main transmission line to the campus. PG&E is providing a limited supply of power through a secondary line, but it falls far short of the normal needs of the campus. This limited supply is being used to maintain cooling for the hospital and other critical infrastructure on campus

Re: Power Outage at Stanford University

#4
Stanford says it has been on "stage 4c chilled water curtailment" since yesterday afternoon. Stage 4c chilled water users are characterized as [0]:

>Building spaces with the following characteristics: Significant safety concern, Non reproducible, reproducible (long duration), Non recoverable, Laser Labs and Wet Labs, MRI, High dollar, Long Duration, Campus Data Center/ECH.

That sounds bad.

[0] https://lbre.stanford.edu/sites/lbre-production/files/stanfo...

Re: Power Outage at Stanford University

#5
From the NBC news: Stanford University cancelled summer session classes Wednesday following ongoing power outages in the area.

According to the university, the power outages were a consequence of the Edgewood Fire burning in San Mateo County.

"Due to yesterday’s fire in the Emerald Hills area, the main Stanford campus lost the power supplied by PG&E’s main transmission line to the campus. PG&E is providing a limited supply of power through a secondary line, but it falls far short of the normal needs of the campus," the university said in a statement.

"This limited supply is being used to maintain cooling for the hospital and other critical infrastructure on campus.

Re: Power Outage at Stanford University

#6

Stanford says it has been on "stage 4c chilled water curtailment" since yesterday afternoon. Stage 4c chilled water users are characterized as [0]: >Building spaces with the following characteristics: Significant safety concern, Non reproducible, reproducible (long duration), Non recoverable, Laser Labs and Wet Labs, MRI, High dollar, Long Duration, Campus Data Center/ECH. That sounds bad. [0] https://lbre.stanford.e…

[deleted]

Re: Power Outage at Stanford University

#7
post #5

From the NBC news: Stanford University cancelled summer session classes Wednesday following ongoing power outages in the area. According to the university, the power outages were a consequence of the Edgewood Fire burning in San Mateo County. "Due to yesterday’s fire in the Emerald Hills area, the main Stanford campus lost the power supplied by PG&E’s main transmission line to the campus. PG&E is providing a limited…

The PG&E grid isn’t designed properly if the failure of one transmission line causes an outage like this.

I live in New York City and pay some of the highest rates in the country for electricity, but over the past 10 years (including multiple hurricanes), I’ve had less than 10 minutes of downtime, and even that was only on one of three phases.

Re: Power Outage at Stanford University

#8
post #3

Nothing works. Seems someone hacked the system

> Due to yesterday’s fire in the Emerald Hills area, the main Stanford campus lost the power supplied by PG&E’s main transmission line to the campus. PG&E is providing a limited supply of power through a secondary line, but it falls far short of the normal needs of the campus. This limited supply is being used to maintain cooling for the hospital and other critical infrastructure on campus

Physical pentesting, performed by one M. Nature.

Re: Power Outage at Stanford University

#9
Am a Stanford PhD Student, can confirm this is kind of a big deal. At 2 30 yesterday I was in the middle of a zoom call in the CS building, and suddenly the lights went off (except emergency lights)and wifi died. I walked 25 over to my place on campus, and likewise no power or wifi. Some common spaces do have light via backup gas powered generators, though.

Pretty crazy it's already been 24 hours and it might go on for days, and hard not to feel this is a portent of more such disruptions to come as summers will keep getting higher and higher peak temperatures over the coming decades...

Re: Power Outage at Stanford University

#10
post #9

Am a Stanford PhD Student, can confirm this is kind of a big deal. At 2 30 yesterday I was in the middle of a zoom call in the CS building, and suddenly the lights went off (except emergency lights)and wifi died. I walked 25 over to my place on campus, and likewise no power or wifi. Some common spaces do have light via backup gas powered generators, though. Pretty crazy it's already been 24 hours and it might go on f…

I wouldn't be so quick to blame PGE's lack of maintenance on global warming. The PGE lines by me are nearing 75 years old. Electrical poles just doesn't last 100s of years and it is nearing it's end of life.

EVs, Heat Pumps, and Electric Stoves only put additional pressure on an antiquated grid.

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