How You Can Prevent the Negative Effects of Power Outages

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By: fosterfuelsmissioncritical.com

Even with advanced technology and hardware, events like harsh weather can occur which cause unplanned power outages. Make sure you prepare your business for a short-term or long-term power outage. By ensuring your company takes the following precautions to prepare for an outage, you will help prevent the long-term negative impacts a power outage can have:

1. Business Continuity Plans

Developing a business plan for power outages prepares your company in case a disaster occurs. A continuity plan helps outline how to continue to deliver products and services to your customers regardless of any internal operational problems that may occur because of outages. Having a plan will help ensure that personnel and assets are protected and can still function properly.

To develop a plan, you should create a committee and work together to identify potential risks you might experience and how those risks will impact your operations. The next part of your plan should include implementing procedures to help mitigate those risks.

After you have created your business continuity plan, you should ensure that all of your procedures work by testing and practicing them. Don’t forget to continuously check and review the process to ensure everything is up-to-date and working as expected.

2. Emergency Response Training

An important step after creating your plan is to educate your employees and test their emergency response with drills. Having drills will help you be able to evaluate the ability of your employees to complete their job assignments in the event of an emergency.

3. Install a UPS Device

One way to help prevent your company’s computers from being damaged or losing data stored in RAM is to use an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) device. UPS devices help equipment to stay on temporarily when a power outage occurs. These devices allow equipment time to shut down properly. Many UPS devices also have surge protection to help mitigate damage to computers from spikes.

4. Have a Backup Generator

Backup power sources are essential for many industries. Having a backup generator is a simple way to prevent unplanned downtime from power outages. To determine the proper generator size your company will need, take inventory of the equipment the generator will need to power. Skilled technicians can help you determine the proper backup generator for your business needs and install it correctly.

You have the option to purchase a portable or standby generator. Portable generators tend to be lower in cost and wattage and run on gasoline. For larger businesses, standby generators are the ideal solution. Standby generators are more expensive and run on diesel, natural gas, or propane. They automatically turn on when the power goes out to help your operations continue during power outages.

5. Emergency Backup Fuel

Ensuring that your company has a backup generator may not be enough. You will need to maintain and test your fuel to ensure that you have high-quality fuel to operate your generator in case of an emergency power outage. Scheduling regular tank maintenance can help confirm that your generators are working properly and will be ready for a critical situation. Using fuel additives and fuel polishing can also increase your fuel efficiency and quality.

Luckily, if you are out of fuel during an outage or the fuel you have has become unusable, there are emergency fuel delivery services that can help you out. Finding a fuel delivery service can enable you to get your business back up and running so you won’t lose out on additional revenue during a longer-than-anticipated power outage.

Prepare Your Business for a Power Outage

Power outages can occur at unexpected times and for a variety of reasons. They can cause your business to come to a halt. Don’t let your business lose out on revenue or productivity. Make sure your business is ready in the event that your organization faces an unplanned power outage. Start preparing today by creating a business continuity plan for power outages, getting an appropriately sized backup generator, and ensuring you have high-quality fuel to continue operating your generator.

Types of Generators and Their Applications

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Portable, industrial, standby: Different types of generators and their applications.

If you are at home or office, driving in a car or flying in an aeroplane, watching a movie at the multiplex or on the TV, you cannot do without electricity. Similarly, if you run a business in sectors such as construction, mining, oil and gas, hospitality, healthcare or transportation, you also need electric power. If you run a commercial establishment then too you need electricity. Typically, you get constant and steady electric power through grid supply when you subscribe to its services.

But what do you do when there is a breakdown in grid supply? How do you meet the power requirements in businesses such as road construction, mining, offshore drilling, outdoor film shooting or event management where grid supply is not possible? The answer is through generators.

Let’s see what generators are and examine different types of generators and their applications.

What are generators?

Generators are machines that produce electric energy in the form of voltage and current. They produce electricity based on the principle of electromagnetic induction. There are two fundamental types of generators known as AC (alternating current) and DC (direct current) generators. While the technique of producing electricity is the same in both types, AC and DC power become different in terms of their applications – the way in which loads receive electric power. For instance, generators for home use deliver AC power whereas cars use generator engines that produce DC power.

Types of generators

Different types of generators are intricately linked to their applications. Based on these applications various types of generators include portable generators, inverter generators, standby generators, industrial generators and induction generators.

Portable generators

Portable generators are very useful in a variety of applications. They come in varying power configurations suitable for different types of uses.

Portable generators are handy during natural disasters or calamities when grid power breaks down. They provide power during planned or unscheduled power outages. They are more suitable for residential purposes and smaller commercial establishments such as retail outlets and shops, at construction sites for powering smaller tools, camping, outdoor weddings, outdoor events and powering agricultural equipment such as bore wells or drip irrigation systems.

Inverter generators

Inverter generators produce AC power and by using a rectifier which converts the AC power into DC power and then inverts it to AC to provide steady current to appliances. These are very useful for appliances such as air-conditioners, refrigerators, automobiles, boats and recreation vehicles which need particular values of voltage and frequency, which inverter generators are capable of providing. They are also light in weight and compact, therefore highly suitable for such applications.

Standby generators

Standby generators serve the purpose of switching on automatically when grid power fails. These are very useful for residential apartments, hotels, restaurants, hospitals and commercial establishments connected to grid power.

Industrial generators

Industrial applications of generators are very different from residential or small commercial applications. Industrial generators or large commercial generators need to be more robust and rugged and perform under harsh conditions. They also need to provide a wide range of power supply characteristics – from 20 kW to 2500 kW, from 120 to 48 volt and single phase to three phase supply. Typically these generators are more customized than other types of generators. There are many types of industrial generators and they can be classified in another way based on the nature of fuel used to run the engines that help to generate electric power. These include fuels such as diesel, gasoline, natural gas, kerosene and propane. Within the industrial generator category, there are portable industrial generators that find uses in various applications where large generators cannot be installed.

Induction generators

These comprise two types – externally excited generators and self-excited generators.

Externally excited generators find uses in regenerative braking applications needed in hoists, cranes, elevators and electric locomotives.

Self-excited generators find uses in wind mills where wind as a non-traditional source of energy gets converted into electric power.

 

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Cited: The Economic Times : Rise E-Paper 2020