A State House electrical outage ended around noon Thursday after the Legislature’s website and internet connectivity within the building were knocked out of commission Wednesday evening.
Legislative Information Services sent an email to legislative members and staff on Wednesday around 9 p.m., stating that an electrical outage in the State House caused a service disruption. Portions of the building were running on generator power, LIS wrote, and “out of an abundance of caution, systems and services residing in our data center will be taken offline until the power has been fully restored.”
The affected systems included internet connectivity within the State House including Wi-Fi, remote access to desktop PCs, including VPN connectivity, and the LAWS system. The Legislature’s website was also not operational, meaning House and Senate session livestreams were not available to the public.
An external power line on Derne Street that feeds the State House failed Wednesday night, according to the Executive Office of Administration and Finance. Eversource brought in a generator Wednesday night, and the building was operating on that early Thursday afternoon, the office said.
Representatives did not attend to any business during a three-minute House session at 11 a.m. The electronic display boards in the chamber were not on. The House welcomed high school student athletes, and quickly adjourned until Monday.
The Senate gaveled met at 11:18 a.m. The chamber adopted an order that the Senate seek a court opinion on the constitutionality of an initiative petition that would subject most of the records of the Legislature and governor’s office to the public records law.
