Michigan State University says it has identified the cause of the widespread power outage that left much of its East Lansing campus dark Saturday night. MSU has tied the outage to an issue at the university's T.B. Simon Power Plant, though officials have not said what failed there.
The outage began around 4:15 p.m. and was still affecting large parts of campus more than five hours later.
WKAR News reporter Kendra Conely, reporting from campus around 9:45 p.m., found large areas without power and students walking around with flashlights. Streetlights along Farm Lane appeared to be off, she said, and the Brody neighborhood appeared to be without power. At Snyder Hall, dorm room lights were dark, though stairwell lights stayed on, possibly on backup or emergency power.
Conditions were better toward the edges of campus. Traffic signals along Harrison Road were working, Conely reported, and the nearby Cedar Village apartments had power. She noticed several campus emergency phones that appeared to have lost their overhead lighting, though she did not test whether they still worked. MSU had already warned Saturday night that some Green Light emergency phones might not be operating.
WKAR's own broadcasts were also affected. WKAR-TV has been off the air since around 4 p.m., according to station staff, and WKAR's radio signals were down for several hours before returning with altered programming. Both 90.5 FM and 102.3 FM were back on the air by Saturday evening.
East Lansing resident and educator David Shane posted on X shortly before 5 p.m. that firefighters appeared to be moving from building to building, helping people out of elevators. WKAR News has not independently confirmed how many elevator calls firefighters responded to.
MSU Police and Public Safety said earlier Saturday that Infrastructure Planning and Facilities crews were working to identify and diagnose the problem, and that there was no threat to campus beyond the outage itself.
In a Saturday night update, the university said crews had identified the cause and were working to restore power, though full restoration could still take hours.
Cellular service across campus has been affected as well. MSU said it was working with carriers, including Verizon, which was bringing in mobile equipment to improve coverage. The university was also setting up light towers at campus intersections.
The MSU Union closed at 8 p.m. to conserve generator resources. Dining across campus was also closed Saturday, including residential dining halls, retail locations and the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center.
The outage forced the cancellation of two major events: Saturday night's performance of Beetlejuice at the Wharton Center and MSU's volleyball match against Wright State at the Breslin Center.
MSU Athletics said the volleyball match will not be rescheduled. Fans with tickets can exchange them for a future home match.
MSU's power system
Saturday's outage is unusual for MSU. The university generates much of its own electricity and runs its own campus distribution system, giving it some independence from the surrounding electric grid.
MSU has generated power on campus since 1894. The T.B. Simon Power Plant, which opened in 1965, supplies electricity and steam used across the East Lansing campus.
According to the university's energy planning materials, that system helped keep campus operating during the August 2003 Northeast blackout, which left about 50 million people in parts of the United States and Canada without power.
In April 2016, a fault in a campus electrical cable near Wilson Road affected a distribution circuit and knocked out power to about 40 buildings. The Associated Press reported at the time that power was restored within roughly 90 minutes.
MSU Police and Public Safety said anyone with an emergency should call or text 911. Non-emergency issues can be reported at 517-355-2221.