The switchover is scheduled to happen May 29.
Lubbock Power & Light (LP&L) is scheduled to switch over a portion of its electrical load from the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) later this month, and that changeover is expected to cause temporary power outages throughout the city, including the Texas Tech University campus.
The switchover is scheduled, weather permitting, to take place on Saturday, May 29, with outages occurring in the city and on campus at various times during the day.
The outages throughout the city and at Texas Tech will be a result of the shutdown of planned substations, including the Brandon Substation on the Texas Tech campus. The Brandon Substation is scheduled to be migrated to ERCOT between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Outages are scheduled to last no more than an hour but will include a comprehensive loss of electrical services for the campus and remote Texas Tech off-campus locations throughout the city. The Reese Center, New Deal facilities and School of Veterinary Medicine in Amarillo will not be affected by this outage.
Texas Tech's Operations Division is working with LP&L to identify the time each location and substation will be affected to give students, faculty and staff as much time as possible to prepare. Once that information is received, it will be shared with the university community through internal channels.
Everyone on campus is requested to manually shut down all technology or other equipment so power irregularities do not damage equipment such as computers, televisions, etc. Any on-campus activities that involve handling chemicals or biological systems set to occur during the power outage should be postponed.
Any student or visiting group scheduled to meet on campus during the time the changeover is happening and cannot reschedule the event is requested to contact the appropriate department or division as needed.
Also, during the outage, elevators in buildings across campus will not be in operation. Students in need of accommodations during this period should contact Student Disability Services.
Once power is restored to the campus, everyone is encouraged to check all their systems and equipment to make sure they are restarted properly.
If there is a threat of severe weather during the planned window for the shutdown, the switchover may be delayed.
