Hurricane Checklist:
Is Your Power Infrastructure Storm Ready?
As Hurricanes become more numerous and powerful, preparing for them has never been more important. Widespread power outages can be life-threatening to those in hospitals and shelters, or in need of assistance from emergency responders.
Natural disasters always serve as a reminder of our dependence on power and the importance of having reliable emergency back-up power available for critical facilities and businesses. Proper UPS protection with generator back-up should be part of every organization’s power infrastructure.
The current forecast for coastal Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas is ominous and large-scale power outages are highly likely. Power companies around the country have moved into the Southeast ready to restore power as quickly as possible, but any outage can endanger lives and cost millions.
People’s lives may not depend on whether your business can sustain operations in a power outage, but protecting your IT infrastructure and maintaining access to information is still critical to business continuity during a disaster.
Tropical storm conditions can be just as catastrophic as hurricanes. Coastal communities and the major metros further north need to be on alert as Dorian weakens and moves up the coast. Today may be a good day to take a few minutes and review your facility’s back-up power and disaster recovery plan.
Here are a few things you can do right now to ensure reliability of your back-up power systems.
- Make sure that UPS and cooling equipment is covered under a service plan. Be sure to check the term of the service plan to make sure that it is still current. If it has expired, renew as soon as possible to avoid a gap in coverage.
- Make sure there is a reliable fuel supply for the building’s back-up generator.
- Check that your facility UPS is online and not in bypass mode or in alarm status. If it is, call for tech support immediately.
- Check the status of the UPS equipment in remote closets or branch offices. Typically, these are supporting critical networking gear.
- Check the health of your UPS batteries. How old are they? Useful life for batteries in UPS applications is 3-5 years. If the batteries are older than that, plan for replacement.
- Perform a visual inspection of your switchgear, ATS and electrical room equipment. If you see signs of neglect or wear such as excessive dust or any corrosion, make arrangements for preventive switchgear maintenance.
For more information about preparing for storms, see our web site, call 86 21 5859 8677, x711, or email me.
Follow-us on LinkedIn for the latest news and announcements.
alphaenertech.com