Power Protection FEATURED ARTICLE

Students might already be ready for school to officially be over, but the fact remains that another month of school is still in effect for most teens and tots, even though the weather has finally warmed and spring fever is officially in the air.

But kids at West Mecklenburg High School in Charlotte, N.C., caught a small tease of what it will feel like to be classroom-free when the high school opened late this morning after intense thunderstorms left parts of Charlotte without power Wednesday morning. Specifically, strong wind gusts knocked down a tree on Little Rock Road which caused power lines to come down and several power poles to be damaged.

The storm knocked out power for more than 1,000 customers in the area, and also forced a day care center and other nearby businesses to open late.

While West Mecklenburg High School had to open on a delay today (something which probably certainly made students happy), the late start could have been avoided with proper power protection units in place. Simply put, a power protection unit ensures that your business, organization or institution can remain up and running even in the event of power outages, surges or brownouts. 

Education institutions all over have been casting their eyes to power protection units lately, especially since these units can guarantee that schools continue on unhampered by any weather-related incidents. In fact, last week Follett Higher Education Group, provider of bookstore services and the foremost supplier of used books in North America, decided to enlist the help of VYCON’s flywheel system. Since Follett's distribution center boasts industry-leading technology from Kiva Systems, Inc. – which are expected to deliver about 11 million textbooks and classroom materials – power must always be available and computer systems must be operational 24/7.

VYCON's VDC-XE (Xtended Energy), which works seamlessly with three-phase UPS systems, supplies up to 300kW of DC power within a single cabinet. For those companies that need to enjoy even longer run times and higher power capacities, the UL listed VDC models can be paralleled without special communications links or control systems for supporting megawatt load applications, according to company officials.

One company that understands just how important it is for educational institutions and services to stay up and running is Minuteman UPS/Para Systems (News - Alert), a provider of power protection units. Minuteman, a Texas-based company whose power protection products are sold in more than 100 countries, offers a full power protection product line that can enable the educational institution to protect its entire campus. Such products include surge suppressors for non-critical components, standby EnSpire series and line interactive Entrust (News - Alert), PRO-E, PRO-RT and EnterprisePlus series UPSs for small- to medium-sized network and security devices. Minuteman also offers full on-line Endeavor UPSs for enterprise wide power protection systems that require multiple hours of runtime.

For more on Minuteman’s educational offerings, click here.