Kelly Fang/File

Power was fully restored to all buildings on the UC Berkeley campus as of Friday morning after a Sept. 30 explosion near California Hall damaged underground power lines and left 11 buildings unable to connect to the campus’s power grid.

Most of the 11 buildings without power were connected to portable generators rented by the campus in the days after the explosion and were reconnected to the main power grid between Tuesday night and early Friday morning. The process of switching from the backup generators to the campus power grid left those buildings without power for up to six hours, said Christine Shaff, communications director for the campus’s facilities services department.

“It was a fairly straightforward process,” Shaff said. “We did schedule the switch-over in coordination with the building occupants. I think everybody was anxious to be off of the generators.”

One student was hospitalized in the explosion, which forced a campuswide evacuation and caused the campus to declare a state of emergency. The explosion occurred after a power outage campus officials attributed to damage from theft of copper wiring at an off-campus electrical facility. Power was restored to all but 11 buildings on campus the next day.

Dwinelle Hall was brought back onto the campus power grid Tuesday night. Three locations that had been without power since the explosion — Edwards Track, the campus cogeneration plant and Environmental Health and Safety — were restored Wednesday.

California Hall, Durant Hall and the Bancroft and Doe libraries were connected to the power grid Wednesday night. Haas Pavilion, Dwinelle Annex and the Alumni House were connected by early Friday morning.

According to Shaff, the delay in restoration occurred because maintenance workers and a “high-voltage team” needed time to assess the damage from the explosion, remove damaged equipment and test power lines to make sure they were safe.

“It’s not just repairing the damage,” Shaff said. “It’s also understanding what we needed to do.”

On Oct. 1, maintenance crews removed a damaged switchboard at the site of the explosion. Switchboards allow crews to switch between two lines of the campus power grid. With the two-line system, power can be delivered to buildings when only one line is operational, allowing crews to conduct maintenance without disrupting the flow of power.

According to Skip Ray, an accounts manager at Peterson Power, the company leased seven generators of five different sizes to UC Berkeley, ranging from 150 to 800 kilowatts. Generators can cost between a “couple hundred” to a “few thousand” dollars a day, Ray said.

Except for pending repairs to the electrical vault from which the Sept. 30 explosion originated, the restoration of the campus power grid represents a return to normalcy after the incident. Shaff estimates the caution tape around the vault will remain for “a few days.”

Chris Yoder covers crime. Contact him at cyoder@dailycal.org and follow him on Twitter @christiancyoder.

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J. Hannah Lee/Staff

UC Berkeley Vice Chancellor for Facilities Services Ed Denton announced last week that he will be retiring in January after more than 15 years working for the campus.

Denton has worked on projects such as the C.V. Starr East Asian Library, the Li Ka Shing Center, the renovated Memorial Stadium and the newly built Simpson Student-Athlete High Performance Center. Denton previously worked as Kaiser Permanente’s national facilities manager.

Denton was hired in 1998 to fill a new position, vice chancellor of capital projects, which was created to address the campus’s considerable number of seismically deficient buildings.

Of approximately 2 million square feet of space identified as needing retrofitting by the campus in 1997, 75 percent has been strengthened during Denton’s tenure, according to Christine Shaff, communications director of the campus Facilities Services department.

“A lot has been accomplished on campus under his leadership,” Shaff said.

In 2002, Denton was named vice chancellor for Facilities Services, head of a three-pronged department that encompasses capital projects, real estate services and as physical plant and campus services.

Denton oversaw reconstruction of Memorial Stadium and construction of the Simpson Student-Athlete High Performance Center, a $321 million dollar project that spanned almost a decade from start to finish. Denton considers the project a major achievement and one of UC Berkeley’s largest construction projects.

“I define the Memorial Stadium and the Simpson Center as my capstone project,” Denton said. “I hope folks will look back at my tenure and see my legacy.”

The project, however did not come without challenges. Denton was personally involved in a lawsuit brought against him and the university that aimed to protect an oak grove near the stadium by halting construction of the high-performance center.

David Friedman, senior principal of Forell/Elsesser Engineers and lead engineer for the stadium’s renovation, has worked with Denton for more than a decade. He described Denton as “a straight-shooter” as well as an intelligent leader who “embraced the engineering acumen of faculty.”

“I give him an honorary degree in structural engineering,” Friedman said. “Previously, there wasn’t a big track record of finishing projects on time or within budget. He straightened ships around.”

Denton is also a UC Berkeley alumnus and has a close relationship with the campus, noting that it looks different from how it did when he was a student — in part because of his work.

“My wife accuses me of walking around campus and acting like it’s mine,” Denton said. “I really enjoy walking around the grove of redwoods near Pappy’s statue. The campus is so different now. It’s improved with modern buildings that attract the best researchers and students. But that walk is the same, and that’s what makes the campus so special.”

Contact J. Hannah Lee at jhlee@dailycal.org

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At approximately 6 p.m., one of the campus’s high-voltage switch stations exploded near Anthony Hall, according to Christine Shaff, the communications director for UC Berkeley’s Department of Facilities Services. The station is a part of the electrical distribution system for the entire campus, she said.

“There wasn’t an actual outage, but there was a dip in power that did affect equipment all across campus,” Shaff said. “So some equipment did shut off because of that dip.”

It was originally thought that a power transformer on campus had exploded.

After the explosion, representatives from the Physical Plant – Campus Services, Berkeley Fire Department and officers from UCPD responded to the scene, according to UCPD spokesperson Lt. Eric Tejada. There were no injuries reported, he said.

The cause of the explosion is currently unknown, as are the extent and cost of the damage. Shaff said equipment near the site of the explosion must be de-energized first before the campus conducts a thorough investigation of the incident.

“That’s scheduled to happen (on Friday), and the investigation will happen over the weekend,” she said. “I don’t think there’s any reason to be worried. The work that they will be doing for the investigation will not impact the power supply to campus.”

Last fall, the northeast part of campus temporarily experienced a power outage after an equipment malfunction during a routine switching procedure on the campus’s physical power plant.

Andy Nguyen is the lead crime reporter. Contact him at anguyen@dailycal.org.

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Linh Phung/Staff

The Albany City Council approved a plan for development on UC-owned land in the city Monday night, despite opposition from community members and local activists.

The council’s decision approves the University Village Mixed Use Project, which involves the construction of a Whole Foods Market, a senior housing complex and mixed retail center on a portion of land belonging to UC Berkeley’s University Village housing complex.

Campus spokesperson Dan Mogulof said he was pleased with the result of the meeting and called it an important step forward.

“This is an indication that the five-year-long process of collaboration has resulted in a benefit for both the city and the university,” Mogulof said.

Out of the five members of the City Council, Councilmember Robert Lieber was the only member to vote against the agreement between the city and university.

“I’m disappointed that the council approved a project with no benefit for the community,” Lieber said. “The university had an opportunity to step forward and approve the open space.”

Lieber asked for an easement for the land, which would have given the city access to the area in order to maintain open space and agricultural land for the future, but the council did not approve his motion.

Christine Shaff, communications director for the campus’s Facilities Services Department, said the published master plan for the development identifies areas for open space, but Lieber still expressed doubts about preserving the land.

“The open space they have identified is on the creek bank,” Lieber said. “It would have been preserved anyway. It’s not an appropriate outstanding amenity for the community.”

The land proposed for development neighbors campus research land known as the Gill Tract, on which a group of activists known as Occupy the Farm established an encampment in late April. The occupation, which lasted for three weeks before being raided by police, protested the development project and advocated for community agriculture on the tract.

Members of Occupy the Farm broke into the tract on Saturday in order to harvest and weed the rows of crops they had planted during the occupation.

Stefanie Rawlings, an Occupy the Farm spokesperson and campus alumna, said she was disappointed with the decision but was not surprised.

“I wish that (Lieber’s) easement had been approved,” Rawlings said. “But the real seat of power is with the community. We’re going to put our efforts into grassroots action and community organization.”

Rawlings said she was encouraged by how many people came to the meeting to speak in support of the farm.

Shaff said it would take some time before development could begin on the land.

“What we’ll do next is enter into more formal agreements with development companies in addition to working with the city for logistical details,” Shaff said. “The university has a general framework for the project, but we will work with the developers to add details to the plan.”

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