Lessons Learned From Texas Black Outs

How many times in the past five years have you heard a meteorologist refer to an upcoming weather event as a “hundred-year-storm” or a “once in a lifetime event” that will cause “record breaking and life-threatening…rain, snow, wind, flooding, heat, cold, lightning, fire, low pressure…”?

As the climate change debate rages on and we, as a country, wrestle with figuring out the best approach to address it, there is no denying that natural disasters appear to be both intensifying and increasing in frequency.

Whether it’s blizzards, hurricanes, wildfires, tornados, flooding, or deep freezes, chances are your building has some vulnerability to natural disasters.

While we can’t solve the world’s climate crisis in 500 words or less, we can focus on how to prepare for and respond to natural disasters by protecting our facilities from the costly downtime prolonged power outages can create.

In planning for disasters, conventional wisdom suggests preparing for the once-in-a-century event. As those become more common, our thinking needs to shift to a more holistic view of the power infrastructure, where runtime requirements are discussed in terms of days rather than seconds. IT Managers need to think upstream of the data center input and facilities directors need to consider the availability of critical power downstream from the building mains.

Alpha Ener Tech offers comprehensive assessment services of the entire power infrastructure, from the building mains, to the generator, through the data center, to each PDU.  A thorough assessment will identify vulnerabilities and allow you to address potential points of failure proactively.

The blackouts in Texas served as a reminder that, in extreme conditions, all power is critical, and that utility load-shedding may not be enough to support life-sustaining activities in times of crisis. Frozen fossil fuel lines illustrated the importance of redundant fuel sources and alternative energy generation and storage; further making the case for microgrids and large-scale energy storage.

For most small to medium-sized businesses, microgrids and large-scale energy storage is not practical, nor is a private source for alternative energy. But there are steps you can take to protect your facility from catastrophic failures in the grid by adding redundancy or additional runtime to allow personnel to access the site to properly shut-down non-essential equipment and processes.

Information is critical and today’s monitoring and management capabilities offer real-time visibility into the status of the equipment at your site. Many software offers are now cloud-based, making them accessible from any connected device.

Disaster preparedness can be as simple as ensuring UPS batteries provide enough runtime to shut everything down or as complex as redundant utility power from a microgrid to maintain operations 24/7/365 – and everything in between.

From Power Assessment Services, to Switchgear Maintenance, Modernization, and Replacement, to Data Center Infrastructure Equipment and Services and monitoring, Alpha Ener Tech is your partner in preparing for and protecting your facility from power outages – whether its 3 seconds or 3 days.