Heat restored to downtown Lansing buildings after BWL steam system failure

LANSING – An equipment malfunction at the Lansing Board of Water & Light cogeneration plant that knocked out heat to downtown Lansing and forced government offices to close for the day has been repaired.

BWL said it repaired the equipment at the REO Town plant around 10 a.m. Wednesday, which restarted steam production and pumped steam through the underground system. It announced the repairs about 2 p.m., and said it could take time for downtown buildings to warm up.

The outage that began around 1 a.m. caused approximately 200 downtown customers to lose steam heat, according to a release from BWL.

The lack of heat forced the city of Lansing offices, Lansing Community College, Capital Area District Libraries and many state offices to close for the day.

All BWL customers had power, though about 300 downtown customers were without power between 4 a.m. and 7 a.m. due to a separate issue.

BWL restored heat a few hours before a winter weather advisory takes effect.

Outage forced city, state offices to close

Mayor Andy Schor on Wednesday morning closed city hall, 54A District Court, and offices in the North Grand parking ramp and the North Capitol parking ramp.

The announcement came shortly after the state of Michigan sent most of its Lansing employees home because of heat problems.

More: Lansing Capitol, state office buildings closed due to heat problem

The city buildings will remain closed for the day, city spokeswoman Valerie Marchand said.

She added though the ramp offices will be closed, people can still park there.

Despite closing downtown offices, Lansing residents can continue to pay property taxes, which are due on Friday, and pick up absentee ballots.

During the outage, residents can pay their property taxes at Michigan State University Federal Credit Union branches or drop them off at a box outside city hall, a press release said.

Voters can pick up an absentee ballot at the city’s South Washington Avenue office until 7 p.m.

The outage also affected LCC's downtown campus. LCC spokeswoman Marilyn Twine said the college will close for the day at 10 a.m.

The Veteran’s Memorial Courthouse lost heat, and Ingham County closed the offices of the county clerk and treasurer. The courts remain in session. The Ingham County Clerk's office in Mason is open.

The Capital Area District Library downtown Lansing branch closed at 1 p.m. and canceled the library board meeting Wednesday night.

GM's Grand River Assembly Plant was briefly affected by the outage.

The steam outage affected the plant's first shift but operations will resume on the second shift, GM spokeswoman Erin Davis said in an email. She said GM employees should report to work as scheduled.

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