A power cut at a university ruined 10 years of work and £25,000 of materials. The loss of supply affected a labratory, leading to temperatures rising across cold storage units.
They contained cell line work which were part of a Bioscience laboratory. "Budget constraints" meant there was no back-up power supply.
Bacteria and cell lines are kept in fridges and freezers, at between -4C and -80C, that are run off mains electrical power, according to a report. The University of Gloucestershire is now looking to install an electric generator at its Cheltenham campus in case there are further power cuts in the future, Gloucestershire Live reports.
A planning application submitted by the university to its local council said it happened when the electricity supply was lost at the Francis Close Hall campus on the evening of July 9 last year. It said insurance covered £5,000 of the loss.
It said: “In most university, industry and NHS Biomedical science labs a back-up power supply is normal, not only because of the relative expense of materials held in cold storage but also because of the length of time invested to grow and study cell lines. However, owing to budget constraints, a back-up supply was not installed at FCH at the time of the Bioscience lab build.
“In the evening of Saturday July 9 2022, power was lost to the campus and not discovered until the morning of Monday July 11. In a matter of two hours of the power being lost, the temperature across the cold storage units had risen sufficiently to destroy £25,000 of materials and 10 years of cell line work.
“Insurance covered £5,000 of that loss. In four years time we expect £100,000 of materials to be stored in the facility. To secure insurance cover to that value, back-up power will need to be installed. However, it is not possible to recover the research time lost.
“Combined with the possibility of power shutdowns nationally, arising from UK energy supply issues, we must now advance plans to install back-up power generation to Bioscience labs as soon as possible.”
