How would you handle this situation?

[agcraig]

I work at a performing arts center as their Master Electrician, and we had a concert with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Marvin Hamlisch was guest conducting. This was one of his last performances before he passed. So, House opens like normal, concert starts, 5 minutes in.... Blackout. Power in the entire town goes out. A sold out concert held in a 750 seat house, with a full orchestra and Marvin Hamlisch, was in the dark. The building's backup generator kicked on for the rest of the building, except our mainstage theater. We have an "ETC emergency lighting transfer system[/GOOGLE]" in our dimmer room that failed. We were panicked and working on trying to get power to the theater, but nothing worked. Like any place, you have to go through committee to get any electrical door open that isn't our dimmer room. We safely evacuate the patrons with our flashlights and battery work lanterns, and we loaded out the PSO in the dark safely. A few days later, we were working with building maintenance and we found out that there was a breaker between the generator and our ETC ELTS that prevented our system from detecting the power outage and safely switching to backup power. Building maintenance does not want the production staff to have access to the room where the generator connects to out system.
What would you do in this situation?
Would you have handled the outage differently?

 

[bobcatarts]

A few days later, we were working with building maintenance and we found out that there was a breaker between the generator and our ETC ELTS that prevented our system from detecting the power outage and safely switching to backup power. Building maintenance does not want the production staff to have access to the room where the generator connects to out system.
What would you do in this situation?
Would you have handled the outage differently?

If the breaker was identified as the problem (assuming it wasn't tripped? I know nothing about ELTS's) then it's time for a work order to bypass it. I would argue that it's clearly a safety issue, and the breaker is preventing the safety equipment from operating properly, and anyone standing in the way of a (hopefully) simple fix is perpetuating an unsafe situation. "You don't want to knowingly operate an unsafe venue, right?"

As for the outage, if the evacuation was handled orderly and without injury or other incident, then well done! Gold star for you! ...as soon as I can find them in the dark here.

Could you kindly identify the battery-powered work lanterns you used as an example of some handy outage gear to keep around?

 

[agcraig]

We have a few of these we held in the balcony to illuminate as much as we could, along with people with flashlights by each door and set of steps.

 

[cpf]

I work at a performing arts center as their Master Electrician, and we had a concert with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Marvin Hamlisch was guest conducting. This was one of his last performances before he passed. So, House opens like normal, concert starts, 5 minutes in.... Blackout. Power in the entire town goes out. A sold out concert held in a 750 seat house, with a full orchestra and Marvin Hamlisch, was in the dark. The building's backup generator kicked on for the rest of the building, except our mainstage theater. We have an "ETC emergency lighting transfer system[/GOOGLE]" in our dimmer room that failed. We were panicked and working on trying to get power to the theater, but nothing worked. Like any place, you have to go through committee to get any electrical door open that isn't our dimmer room. We safely evacuate the patrons with our flashlights and battery work lanterns, and we loaded out the PSO in the dark safely. A few days later, we were working with building maintenance and we found out that there was a breaker between the generator and our ETC ELTS that prevented our system from detecting the power outage and safely switching to backup power. Building maintenance does not want the production staff to have access to the room where the generator connects to out system.
What would you do in this situation?
Would you have handled the outage differently?

I agree with keeping access to these types of areas restricted. Had you been able to get access to the critical area, would you have been able to quickly figure out which breaker to reset/trip? What would the consequences of flipping the wrong one: loss of backup power in other parts of the building? Damage to the generator or other equipment? etc. Better to take the safest route available at the time - which you did - and leave the troubleshooting to the experts, at a time when the stakes are lower and the panic has receded.

Whatever issue it is, there's no question it should be fixed and verified, and you should have no trouble making that happen after an incident like this, if it hasn't already happened. This is also a good time to push for regular tests of the emergency system: this breaker was probably misset for months, if not years, before, unnoticed just because nobody was using the theatre during previous outages. I disagree with FMEng, though, I'd say that an untested backup system is worse than no backup system at all, since it's easy to make plans under the assumption that everything kicks in as planned, only to have that not happen.

 

[FMEng]

Backup systems need to be periodically tested. When generators and transfer switches are involved, the best way to do that is to pull the main breaker to the building. By doing so, you will find out what works and what doesn't. It's a good idea to do this on a scheduled interval, perhaps once a year. The only thing worse than an untested backup system is no backup at all.

 

[venuetech]

In addition to periodic testing I think you should have regular scheduled inspections with a check list of the transfer system with both building maintenance and production staff. some sort of signage that outlines correct settings may be helpful to workers unfamiliar with the system.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

It sounds like the breaker on the sense circuit may be fed from the emergency source and not the normal source and, surprise, it didn't detect a power failure. Again I'm guessing but a single breaker in a simple box should be feeding the ELTS from the same service that noramlly feeds the house light dimmers. We insist that it be tapped off the dimmer buss bars. I'll bet it's just plain installed wrong and probably never worked right. My advice is get an electrician and the ETC shops and get it rewired. You may be able to get an ETC rep to look at it at no cost and tell you for sure. They would want to know.

Try this. Turn off that breaker and see if the ELTS transfers. You should be able to hear it.

 

[ruinexplorer]

Of course, whenever operating a breaker, especially one that controls a significant amount of power, know and use the proper PPE. Not all are class 0 or below.