MetLife Stadium Passes Power Tests In Preparation For Super Bowl XLVIII
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The head of the organizing committee for next February's Super Bowl says a dry run to test the power supply was successful.
Al Kelly said the test was conducted recently on a Saturday and Sunday when the New York Jets and New York Giants were on the road.
All buildings in New Jersey's Meadowlands sports complex were powered up at the same time. The process simulated the load that will be created when the game is played at MetLife Stadium.
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Other tests were done as well.
Kelly told a gathering of business leaders in New York on Thursday that aside from a few minor issues, everything went smoothly.
The NFL is seeking to avoid a repeat of last February's 34-minute partial outage at New Orleans' Superdome during the Super Bowl.
The Superdome's power company took the blame for the blackout. They said the cause was a faulty device that had been installed in its switching gear and designed to prevent a failure of electric cables leading to the stadium.
Officials of Entergy New Orleans, a subsidiary of New Orleans-based Entergy Corp., said the device, called a relay, had been installed to protect the Superdome from a cable failure between the company's incoming power line and lines that run into the stadium.
Company officials said the device performed without problem during January's Sugar Bowl and other earlier events.
They said the device has been removed and replacement equipment will be installed.
While the NFL and officials in New York and New Jersey say they will do everything they can to prevent another power outage at the Super Bowl, energy experts warn it's almost impossible to guarantee the lights will stay on at any event, let alone the cold-weather championship game at MetLife Stadium in 2014.
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