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In Atlanta, an electrical problem in a "Buss Duct" has caused the Sam Nunn Atlanta Federal Center to be closed for at least a week. 5,000 federal employees work at the center.
While many might view this as another example of The Infrastructure Crisis in the USA, it may also be another example of mismanagement at the General Service Administration (GSA), landlord for the complex.
The GSA has had many scandals and has been the subject of several Congressional Hearings, including an August 1, 2012 hearing titled "GSA: A Review of Agency Mismanagement and Wasteful Spending - Part 2". That hearing followed an $823,000 GSA employee conference in Las Vegas and a one-day-long $250,000 GSA employee conference in Crystal City, Virginia.
The closed Atlanta complex is named for Samuel Augustus "Sam" Nunn, Jr., who served for 24 years as a United States Senator from Georgia and whose daughter is the current Democratic Party nominee for a Georgia Senate seat.
(Score: 2) by PizzaRollPlinkett on Monday July 28 2014, @10:03PM
What on earth is a "buss duct"?
Is it one of these?
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090929073219AAozd9W [yahoo.com]
"Bus Duct" is a form of rigid electrical conductor with a grounded metallic housing. It is manufactured in fixed lengths and assembled by bolting the ends together. It is commonly used in both light manufacturing (eg, automotive manufacturing facilities) and high-rise buildings.
The most common bus duct (also known as busway) is a three-phase low voltage (typically 480v) product.
Apparently you put these in them:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Busbar [wikipedia.org]
Well, I learned something, anyway, so the power outage wasn't a total loss.
(E-mail me if you want a pizza roll!)
(Score: 2, Funny) by Buck Feta on Monday July 28 2014, @10:27PM
> What on earth is a "buss duct"?
Apparently it's a fancy name for a thermal exhaust port [wikia.com].
- fractious political commentary goes here -
(Score: 2) by mrider on Tuesday July 29 2014, @02:37AM
"Bus Duct" (with one "s") (see one manufacturer's home page) [eaton.com] is an alternative way to distribute electricity (alternative to "wire"). The idea is that you have an enclosed container with isolated electrically conductive bars (or bus bars) as opposed to running wire. This has a number of advantages:
We'll probably never hear what actually went wrong, although it would be interesting to find out. Bus is HIGHLY reliable. I would expect that there was some sort of work or changes in the building not too far in the past. Otherwise, it wouldn't be surprising to see the bus duct in use 50 years from now.
Doctor: "Do you hear voices?"
Me: "Only when my bluetooth is charged."
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday July 29 2014, @11:52AM
"Bus is HIGHLY reliable."
But when you do manage to break it, its an unholy nightmare to track. Shorts are actually pretty convenient because you can see the damage, the problem is finding opens.
Its like ripping out and reinstalling HVAC ducts to find a lost kitten. Its about that much work.
I've never worked in a CO or data center using this tech but everyone likes to talk about it. Obviously 48VDC conductors are a bit larger than 440-3ph conductors for the same power level. I mostly worked in small long distance facilities (like less than an acre) so its possible this stuff is all over local loop serving centers (the building your home phone is probably hooked up to unless there's a SLC hut but I digress)
(Score: 2) by mrider on Tuesday July 29 2014, @01:29PM
Yeah. Finding intermittent opens are even more fun, because they can be at any joint. But that's pretty uncommon.
Doctor: "Do you hear voices?"
Me: "Only when my bluetooth is charged."