ETSU’s power supply system is getting an upgrade.
Since June, an outside contracting company has been replacing old and worn-out underground power supply cables throughout campus.
“We’re trying to do an electrical upgrade of the entire campus,” said Bill Rasnick, associate vice president of the physical plant. “That is the goal.”
The campus’s current power comes from transformers located on campus. They provide 4,160 volts of power.
The new system will provide 13,200 volts and come directly from Johnson City instead of the power yard on campus. This way, the city will pump power to each building individually.
“The old (power) yard is going away,” Rasnick said.
The Johnson City Power Board worked with ETSU to provide the upgrade.
Funding for the project was provided by the state as a capital maintenance project, which Rasnick said is applied for often, but rarely granted.
However, due to ETSU’s aging electrical system, the money was made available.
“We’ve had, in the past, some underground failures in the lines where they are 30 years old,” Rasnick said.
Besides occasional power outages, the whole system was outdated.
What is being installed now is more practical.
“That’s more efficient,” Rasnick said. “That is what everyone has gone to.”
Rasnick said also that the old 4,000-volt system was common during the 1950s and ’60s.
Though the physical plant is not actually doing the upgrade, they planned and supervised the project.
“We don’t have the capability to do that work,” Rasnick said.
Because the work requires shutting down power to a building once it is ready to have new cables installed, most of it must be done during the summer and other breaks in classes.
“We have to kick out the old 4,160 (volt) transformers at the buildings to hook up, but we don’t anticipate any more interruptions during the academic term,” Rasnick said.
Doing the work mostly during semester breaks means that the project may not be finished until next year.
“We started in June and meant to finish by Christmas break,” he said.
“What we don’t get finished we will do over the break and next summer.

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