<p><pre><code> "Backup generators have failed numerous tests, according to project documents,
and officials disagree about whether the cause is understood."
</code></pre>
Backup generators are magical unicorns that sit around all day and night until lightning strikes your luck. Likewise, they need regular maintenance and 'idle runs' a few times a year at least to ensure that they will turn over.<p>Generators aren't store and forget machines, as we've learned a few years back. When Hurricane Sandy hit, we had an extra generator truck available just in case ours wouldn't kick in. This is a very real possibility with generators since, just like a vehicle that runs on fuel and needs oil, if it's not used, it will rot (so to speak) and likely won't start when you really, really, really need it.<p>I suspect a combination of the savage Utah Sun coupled with freezing temps at night have done these in. Plus, I wonder how long they were in storage and shipping before actually getting installed.<p>Now that's just the generators. The rest of this mess reads like a poorly thought out <i>wouldn't it be awesome</i> project some high ranking folks at No Such Agency envisaged and a bunch of contractors happily obliged... care be damned as long as profits were made.