The State of Washington is estimated to have lost US$500,000 as a result of a power surge in August that shut off power to a state government building that housed the state's data center, Associated Press reported.
The surge occurred as a result of an equipment short circuit in the campus's underground vault. The data center lost utility power but backup generators picked up the load as designed.
They did not, however, remain operational through a second surge that followed. Washington Department of Information Services spokeswoman Joanne Todd told AP that the second surge forced the generators to shut down.
She explained that the generators were designed to shut down when something like this occurs to protect electrical equipment from damage. "It worked like it was supposed to," Todd said.
The price tag of the outage, which lasted for several hours, was calculated by the Department of General Administration. It includes the cost of a new electrical vault switch ($130,000), generator fuel, staff overtime pay and fees to a consultant hired to assess the damage.
This was the first time the data center was shut down in 20 years, the wire service reported.
The state recently completed construction of a new data center and has already started populating the building with staff.
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