Facilities management crews have determined three separate electrical problems that contributed to a power outage that affected four campus buildings on Monday.

Boyd said that generally, the failures are related to aging equipment.

“We found defects in two high-voltage cables and a broken high-voltage ‘boot’ connection where two cables come together,â€Â Boyd said.

“Our cabling is 35 to 40 years old in many areas of campus. With age, stress and fatigue, it breaks down. Everything has a finite life.â€Â

The power outage began at 5 p.m. on Sunday. On Monday, the Kremen Education Building, Smittcamp Alumni House, Satellite Student Union and Henry Madden Library were closed.

University officials said the school canceled 75 classes in the Kremen Education Building on Monday, a move that affected 2,100 students.

While students, faculty and staff were unable to use the new library, limited library services were available through alternate locations as they had been before the library reopened last week. Boyd said the outage was not directly related to the library̢۪s opening.

Two buildings still closed while old utilities are repaired

Crews isolated the Kremen building and the Madden library from the problem area and re-energized the feeder line, Boyd said.

This restored power to these two buildings at about 4 a.m. Tuesday. Classes and library activity resumed as usual but the Satellite Student Union and the Smittcamp Alumni House are expected to remain closed for the rest of the week.

Although no classes are held in those buildings, all activities are canceled.

While crews work to restore power to the remaining two buildings, Boyd will prepare a list of parts needed to repair the equipment.

This may not be easy because parts are old and difficult to find.

Vice President for Administration Cynthia Teniente-Matson said the power failure highlights the importance of securing state funding for a campuswide infrastructure upgrade project including additional electric feeder capacity.

Teniente-Matson said the $105 million projects would update and add capacity for electricity, heating, ventilation and air conditioning, domestic water, fire alarms, sanitary sewers, natural gas lines and other infrastructure needs.

She said Fresno State has requested this funding for the past five years.