SEMO HAS POWER PROBLEM

A faulty steam turbine at Southeast Missouri State University's power plant forced power to be shut off to the Greek Housing complex for more than eight hours Monday, university officials said.

Kenneth Dobbins, vice president for finance and administration, said Union Electric Co., apparently had a problem at one of its generating plants.

As a result, UE limited power to the university. That meant that Southeast had to generate its own power from its coal-fired, steam turbine plant, Dobbins said.

"One of our turbines used to generate electricity went down," said Dobbins. That occurred at 11:45 a.m.

As a result, the university had to shut off power to Johnson Hall of Science and the Greek Housing complex on the north side of campus, he said. Power was quickly restored to Johnson Hall, which, along with the rest of the campus, received power generated by the remaining turbine.

"At 8 p.m., UE gave us enough power to restore" electrical power to the Greek Housing complex, Dobbins said.

"It didn't cause us any safety or health concerns," said Dobbins, "but obviously students were inconvenienced because we were without power and that's something we don't like to see ... on the first day of classes."

He said the university has called in a consultant to determine the problem with the turbine.