PSE&G: "The issue is not with PSE&G, there's something wrong at the college"

PSE&G spokesperson Karen Johnson told The Daily Targum that the power company is operating normally and is not responsible for the outage that swept the Cook and Douglass campuses throughout Wednesday, causing disruptions in 90 Rutgers buildings. The power outage was caused by something on the Rutgers campus.

"The outage appears to be caused by some sort of equipment (malfunction) at the college's location," she said. "We bring the power to the campus (and) the issue is not with PSE&G, there's something wrong at the college."

The Cook and Douglass campuses are not powered by the Livingston Solar Farm or the Busch Co-Generation Plant.

Dan Morrison, executive director of Residence Life, said generators would not not solve the issue.

“The way the system is set up, it’s not a generator issue. The bottom line is it’s not about putting more power in because the same thing could continue to happen. They’re trying to isolate why it’s happening to find a solution."

As a result of the power outage, 3,000 students residing on the two affected campuses were evacuated. Temporary shelters were set up on the Livingston and Busch campuses.

The University announced that the power was restored on Thursday morning. All buildings are open and operating, and classes have returned to their normal schedule.

Update: A Rutgers administrator said a malfunctioning transformer caused the power outage.