Four Tips to Keep Your Facility Online

Diesel Generators at Data Center

From 2014 headlines:

“Attack on Calif. Power Station Raises Fear of Domestic Terrorism” by Newsmax

Jon Wellinghoff, former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, quoted on the hour-long attack on the Metcalf San Jose, California power station, “the most significant incident of domestic terrorism involving the grid that has ever occurred.” Read more on Newsmax

Philadelphia Electric Co has record 623,000 outages due to snow and ice” by Philly.com

February 7th’s ice storm was so devastating to Southeastern Pennsylvania that Peco set an outage record for any winter storm. Read more on Philly.com

Recent increases in the occurrence of adverse weather events and sabotage threats have today’s facility managers evaluating incident response procedures and planning for the unexpected. Equipment is increasingly pricy and extra ordinarily hard to replace in an emergency. Finding highly technical service during times of distress can be challenging and/or expensive.

1. N+1 Generator Redundancy

As reliable as most modern generators are, they can and will fail at times (and often right when you need them the most!). Most failures arise from human error or failure of wear items such as batteries, belts or filters. Even regular maintenance cycles may require an unexpected amount of downtime. Having multiple industrial diesel or natural gas generators in a redundant configuration demonstrates a high commitment to customers, and can make a difference in a very competitive marketplace by helping to ensure your facility will have power available at any given time.

2. Fuel Runtime Evaluations and Fuel Tank Expansion

Grid vulnerability brings into question the length and nature of power outages in the future. Fuel runtimes need to be evaluated for the worst case scenario. Certain disasters restrict access to fuel or make transportation of fuel difficult. Fuel tank expansion on site is an often overlooked part of any good critical power system. In the event of a prolonged emergency, it’s important to know how much run time your current fuel tank (or tanks) will give you and evaluate whether or not it’s enough.

3. Tap Box Integration

Is your facility, ready for a rental Power Module to roll up and connect? Tapping into a typical electrical system through an ATS requires time and expertise that may not be readily available or cost effective. Installing a Tap Box that accepts cam-lock connections at your facility allows you to quickly utilize available mobile rental generators.

4. Satellite Remote Monitoring

Satellite remote monitoring is a smart way to avoid failures. Identifying problems in advance of a high demand or long term outage saves money, stress, and can identify weaknesses in configuration before a collapse identifies it for you. Having your generators remotely monitored by outside experts or capable employees can preempt failures by identifying negative conditions that otherwise get overlooked.

Contact Global Power Supply today to assist in preventing your next outage!