Electricity was restored to all parts of the Vanderbilt campus at about 10 a.m. Thursday after a two-and-a-half-hour power outage. Steam, which provides heat to the buildings, was expected to be fully restored later in the day.

The cause of of the outage, which affected nearly all of the campus including the university’s steam plant, is under investigation. Because restarting steam generation is a slower and more complicated process than restoring electrical power, several hours were needed before heat was restored to all buildings. All of the campus is expected to have heat restored by 4:30 p.m.

Some of the university’s computer services were also affected but were being selectively restored as of mid-morning. The university maintained its normal class schedule.

The medical center was able to maintain electricity because a secondary feed from Nashville Electric Service’s Edgehill substation remained online and all automatic switching occurred within the medical center. However, the medical center was affected by the loss of steam, which is used to sterilize equipment, prompting a delay of elective surgeries.