UTICA — Officials have identified the cause of the power outage that took place during the Utica Comets’ first game of the season at the Adirondack Bank Center at Utica Memorial Auditorium, and are working to ensure that it does not happen again.   

Robert Esche, president of the Mohawk Valley Garden and the Comets’ AHL team, said there is a switchgear, which is a collection of circuit breakers, fuses and switches, located near Whitesboro Street, which goes through two transformers, one to the Nexus Center and one the Adirondack Bank Center.   

Because there are two separate transformers, it is known that the outage does not have anything to do with the Nexus Center. 

The transformer for the Adirondack Bank Center goes into another switchgear located behind the stage, and a circuit breaker popping in that switchgear caused the outage, Esche said. 

The Adirondack Bank Center has a natural gas generator that is supposed to kick on in situations like power outage, but Esche said for some reason, the generator did not turn on. 

Esche said that teams went onto the roof of the auditorium to try to reset the generator, but the generator kept tripping, and when electricians came, he made the decision to postpone the game and to have fans exit the building. 

Esche said the electricity was back on at around midnight. 

“Essentially what happened, we had a constant load that exceeded the breaker,” Esche said. “We’re trying to figure out how that possibly happened. We have our load counts. We know what the video boards draw. We know what the chillers for the ice draw. We know what the cooling and heating draw. So, the electricians have been here all night. They’re doing load counts and making sure everything is fine.”

“The other thing we have is that the generator has a weekly self-test that basically kicks on by itself,” he added. “We have the reports on that. We have it maintenanced every quarter. We’re just assessing everything. Obviously, we’re back up and running. We’ll be fine for Friday.”  

Esche said he has been speaking with elected officials, city codes and state officials to discuss what happened.   

“I think the big thing for us is that one, everybody cleared the building quickly and safely and calmly. We had a plan in place, which was tough to do with no lights but it worked,” he said. “The electricians were able to come in right away. National Grid was able to come in right away. It just took a minute to get through the generator and then the switchgear. It was a few hours to work through it.” 

Scott Ingersoll, chief of the Utica Fire Department, said the fire department has been in contact with staff from the auditorium and the Comets organization to assist with any further issues. 

“The fire department has personnel at the auditorium for every Comets home game. When this incident occurred the personnel were able to call for additional resources immediately and start to assist the auditorium staff with evacuation of the occupants and investigation,” Ingersoll said. “[Nine] additional fire personnel responded to the scene to assist.”  

Ingersoll commended the crowd and the auditorium staff for their calm reaction to what could have been a very serious event.  

“I would remind everyone that when you are attending an event, shopping, in a movie theatre, etc. that you should be aware of your surroundings. It is a useful practice to identify exits, stairwells, and other means to increase your safety,” he said.  

Esche said he was amazed by how helpful and cordial fans were, specifically how they used the flashlights on their cellphones to help people find their way out safely. He also complimented the Utica fire and police departments.  

“I’m just happy we didn’t lose the ice,” Esche said. “If we would have lost the ice it would have been a two-week ordeal.”