Power Protection FEATURED ARTICLE

The daily commute from work is not always what we consider to be key productivity time. After all, many of us are actually behind the wheel and navigating traffic. For those who are relying on mass transit systems to shuttle them from their corporate environments, the time spent is often used to catch up on communications, compose a key sales letter, update Salesforce or any other activity that can eat up time in the office.

If a power failure occurs, however, these individuals are often left to do nothing more than wait. At the same time, they aren’t likely to reach their destination when expected. This can cause a significant lag in the productivity of the day, cause a missed meeting or even make the individual late for that all-important child’s soccer game. If power protection were in place, however, such an outage could be avoided.

In Chicago, professionals rely on a series of connected trains to get them from point A to point B and beyond. For 32 years, my grandfather relied on such a system to get him to the Swift (News - Alert) Company where he served as an efficiency engineer. Imagine his response if power protection were to fail or be nonexistent and land the train and everyone in it stranded without power. For those professionals still taking the trip and relying on Red and Purple lines, they quickly found out the impact on their own lives when an outage occurred at the Howard Avenue yard.

The Red, Purple and Yellow Lines all experienced trains stuck at the station, according to officials. Power was out for a full 49 minutes, except for the Yellow line, which had to wait an additional 29 minutes to be restored. Commuters were advised to rely on bus service to get to their desired destination. For those relishing the time on the commute to improve efficiency; that hope was lost with this recent power outage.

This incident demonstrates why a power protection plan is essential in a situation where a significant portion of the population is relying on that power to accomplish a goal. In this case, these individuals were trying to get between destinations, often from work to home. When power failed, they were stranded. It’s fine to advise that commuters try another method of transportation; but if they’re already on the train, problems ensue.

The bottom line is that users from all walks of life rely on power sources for everyday life. Without a power protection plan in places where these individuals are affected on a broad scale, life can stop pretty quickly.