UVic Feeder Upgrade Project - Reliable electric power for years to come

Friday, October 11, 2013

You may have noticed a lot of activity around manholes, electrical rooms and the electrical substation behind the Saunders building this summer.  You may have also been notified of a number of planned power outages taking place in your building.  All this work was necessary to address some of the aging high voltage distribution and substation infrastructure because the electrical service to the campus didn't have the capacity to meet the needs of additional buildings on campus.  The project involved bringing a BC Hydro new electrical feeder to campus as well as redistributing the electric supply to campus buildings.  Facilities Management worked extremely hard with BC Hydro, Electrical engineers and contractors to complete this work before classes resumed in September.

This project involved extensive coordination with the people doing the work, and with the building occupants.  This project was years in planning, with months of work in the field culminating in a 14 hour campus wide planned power outage.  In the end it was all worth the effort.  In words of Peter Robertson, the head of the Facilities Management Electrical shop, "I have to say I'm really stoked about this. We pulled off a really big project in the course of one weekend that will serve the university for decades to come. We now have some of the best and safest equipment available in service at our substation and we have secured capacity for future growth".

Nice job, Facilities Management!