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Power surge costs state government $500,000

The Columbian
Published: September 6, 2011, 12:00am

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — A power surge that shut down the state’s internal network for several hours will end up costing the government $500,000.

The Department of General Administration estimates that it will cost about $130,000 to purchase and install a new electrical vault switch. Other costs are for generator fuel, worker overtime and a new consultant who is assessing the situation.

A contractor was working on a new high-voltage power line two weeks ago when equipment in the underground vault short-circuited. The ensuing power surge shut down electricity to the entire campus and forced a hard shutdown of the state’s data center. The data center hasn’t been fully shut down in more than 20 years.

Officials are still working together to determine exactly what happened and how to prevent it from happening again.

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