Power outage at Education Dept. to be resolved by Wednesday morning

Facilities/Construction

Power outage at Education Dept. to be resolved by Wednesday morning

A construction accident caused the electricity to be cut at the Education Department’s Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) headquarters building in Washington, D.C.

Jason Miller@jmillerWFED

September 25, 2018 4:16 pm

1 min read

About 500 federal employees at the Education Department’s headquarters building should be back in their offices by Wednesday at 8 a.m. after a construction accident cut the power to part of the building on Monday.

“A switchgear failure from water infiltration in the construction of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial caused a power outage on the east side of the Education Department’s Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) headquarters building. Phone and internet service has been restored. Engineers and electricians continue to work to restore power on the building’s east side,” said an Education spokesman in an email to Federal News Radio.

The spokesman said not all of the building on 400 Maryland Ave., S.W. lost power so affected employees could’ve teleworked, moved to other parts of the building or moved to other Education Department office in the district.

The Washington Post first reported the electrical outage at Education.

The agency has about 4,000 employees, and about 1,000 work at the LBJ building.

The power outage reminded agencies about the value of being to telework when unexpected things happen. Education was one of several agencies to reduce the amount of telework employees could do per pay period down to two.

Over the years, other agencies including the National Institutes of Health, the General Services Administration, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and several others, have suffered similar power outages.