Power Outage Preparation, Part 2

July 10, 2012
The heat of late summer can easily bring serious power problems, so now is the time to prepare

The heat of late summer can easily bring serious power problems, so now is the time to prepare. Make a list of possible weaknesses/problems that could occur on your systems, including:

  • Cable failures. Review cable testing data. Replacing marginal cables now, on a non-emergency basis, costs much less than scrambling after a failure.
  • Failure of UPS and/or problems emergency generator. Methodically perform thorough testing of your backup power system, but understand that "live testing" can result in an unplanned outage. Test individual components (e.g., batteries, transfer switch, etc.) and inspect the connections between them.
  • Poor connections fail during sag. Conduct infrared inspections on critical connections now. Repair or replace as needed.

The unplanned restart can result in another shutdown when too many things try to start at once, so review your restart procedure now.

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