Wiring mix-up blamed for South Dakota government's summer network outage

Misidentified electrical feeds at Capital City data hub caused statewide disruptions

Power failures at the state’s main data center left South Dakota’s government systems offline for nearly two days this summer.

Driver’s license stations closed, court proceedings were postponed, and state employees scrambled to restore essential services.

More than two months later, officials said a mix-up in electrical feeds at the state Capitol caused the mid-August statewide outage of South Dakota’s telecommunications network, shutting down the court system, tax collections and unemployment processing.

“The electricians were following the labeling and shut off a main breaker,” South Dakota Bureau of Human Resources and Administration Commissioner Darin Seeley said during testimony to the Legislature’s investigative arm. “Unfortunately, those (were) labeled to say that they’re connected to that main and they are not connected to that main.”

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