Students to return to Green Sea Floyds schools powered by generators

Students in the Green Sea Floyds attendance area will go back to school Tuesday with the help of two generators that the district has brought in to provide electricity to Green Sea Floyds elementary and high schools.

The schools lost power Oct. 8 during Hurricane Matthew, but the district did not hold classes last week.

Duke Energy normally provides electricity to the schools, and a spokesman said service has been restored, but the district will continue to power the schools with the generators until Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon.

“Tomorrow we are going to make a call and ask them to formally tell us that the power system is ready to accept the energy load of the schools, and we’ll decide which day we’ll switch them back,” said Dennis McCrary, coordinator of project management for Horry County Schools.

The district made the decision to bring the generators in on Friday, and they were running on Saturday.

The generator for the high school produces about 800 kilowatts of power, and the school uses 500 kilowatts per day.

“That would power an average neighborhood for a day,” said McCrary.

Combined, the generators cost about $16,000 per week, double what the school would normally pay for power to the schools.

The generators use diesel fuel, and the 800-kilowatt generator uses 600 gallons per day.

McCreary said that the switch from the generators back to Duke Energy would take between four and five hours.

“It took an awful lot of people a lot of extra time to get this done, and the school district facilities staff did most of it,” he said.

This story was originally published October 17, 2016 at 4:57 PM with the headline "Students to return to Green Sea Floyds schools powered by generators."