Power Protection FEATURED ARTICLE

“Stay safe during the storm!” is what I’ve been hearing from concerned friends and relatives so far all day, and I’m sure it’s no different despite your location along the East Coast. As the winds pick up, the skies gradually darken and the warning sirens blast (yes, some of my local friends can hear them loud and clear), we’re expected to see Sandy peak tonight into tomorrow and Wednesday. While alarmed citizens pack grocery stores and flock to gas stations to fill their tanks, something significantly more important remains: efficient power protection.

The Huffington Post reports that Sandy could swipe power of nearly 10 million in its short but disastrous duration. In light of this, utilities up and down the East Coast have been putting up thousands of power lines, as well as have been enforcing tree-cutting crews in preparation for the worst of this storm.

A computer model developed by assistant professor at the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineeing at John Hopkins University, Seth Guikema, predicts the storm’s strength based on data combining important elements such as wind durations, wind gusts, population density and additional information from ghosts of natural disasters past.

So what is it predicting now? Apparently eight to 10 million customers will lose power in Sandy’s strong grip throughout the next week as the hurricane blasts through some of the most densely populated areas in the nation. As of last year, the city of New York alone boasts over eight million residents, where certain portions have been issued mandatory evacuations and transportation into the area has strictly been forbidden.

When compared to last year’s Hurricane Irene, Sandy exceeds the six to seven million who lost power. Even worse is that Sandy will also probably far exceed the nearly $16 billion in total damages that Irene caused in destruction.

Guikema elaborated more on the thought process for his development, saying, “The aim, really, is to see if we can get this kind of information to emergency managers ahead of time, so they can be more prepared for future storms.” Additionally, he told the Huffington Post (News - Alert) that the project would hopefully also play a large role in studying “the increasing vulnerability of grid operations to hurricane threats over time – particularly as such storms are expected to increase in frequency and intensity with the changing of the climate.”

The Long Island Power Authority and National Grid has warned its approximate 4.4 million customers of New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island to prepare for power outages that could last up to 10 days.

If this calls attention to anything, it’s power protection. Make sure that you have inspected and ensured that your power protection products and solutions are prepared for the potential catastrophic effects of what’s being possible determined as history’s worst hurricane. When you lose power, the last thing you need is an inefficient or unreliable system to keep your business operations running the best that they can – that is, given the drastic conditions. Even worse is if, let’s say, your server goes down, you most likely won’t be able to physically attend to the situation due to safety concerns or physical limitations. One great suggestion to directly address this is remote power management (RPM) solutions that allow you to manage and monitor your equipment whenever, wherever.

By implementing solutions such as Minuteman UPS/Para Systems’ new RPM Series 8 & 16 Remote Power Managers, you can remotely manage power for connected devices such as servers, switches routers, modems, security devices and telephone systems from your laptop, desktop PC or smartphone or tablet to avoid losing valuable time and money.

To learn more about Minuteman’s RPM solutions, click here.