Planned outage at UMaine Orono on 5/20/24

Orono, ME – On Monday, May 20, there will be a service interruption affecting the University of Maine campus while our crews move electric load from the Steam Plant substation to a mobile substation. The outage will last approximately four hours, beginning at 9 p.m. and ending around 1 a.m. Tuesday, May 21.

Versant has been working closely with UMaine’s facilities electrical engineer to identify a day and time to do this work while minimizing disruption to campus life. In preparation for this switch, Versant also built a permanent platform for the mobile substation, setting up the site for future events that might require the university’s load to be moved.

The electric load transfer is necessary to perform work on the Steam Plant substation during the next couple of months. Versant will be replacing older metal-clad breakers with gas-insulated switchgear, as well as putting up new reeling and metering. All improvements are being made to improve the system’s reliability. The goal is to complete the work by the end of July.