Power Protection FEATURED ARTICLE

Back-up Power Supplies: Do You Need Them?

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) is keeping track of power outages that are not the result of major weather incidents.  According to The Record of North Jersey, the BPU is looking at outages caused by “everything from faulty equipment to brittle tree branches to wayward animals — which are being tracked by state regulators for the first time as electric utilities provide an unprecedented look at their day-to-day operations.” 

The BPU, along with many other power companies, is looking for ways in which to improve services based on the analysis of outage data. Many utility companies post current outages in real-time. Take a quick look on any given day and you might be surprised by the number of outages. The truth of the matter is that power outages are unpredictable, in some cases caused by a variety of reasons from aging power lines, routine work, and specific isolated incidents.

Some actions on behalf of power companies can minimize preventable outages; however, not all outages are preventable.  Pepco Holdings, Inc. (Pepco), a Washington, D.C., metropolitan area power company, says on its Web page it has increased reliability and outage durations by trimming trees, upgrading priority feeders, replacing aging infrastructure, installing advanced technology, preparing for system growth and installing underground lines.

Protecting your Equipment

Regardless of the reasons, outages, brownouts and power surges are not only an annoyance, but they are harmful to your electronic equipment. For businesses, that translates to loss of productivity and sales, loss of data, and possible equipment failure. However, you can protect your business and equipment from harm by using a back-up power source, an Uninterruptible Power Supply or UPS.

Minuteman Power Technologies is one maker of UPS based in North America. They offer different models and systems for back-up power needs and pride themselves on the value proposition that they offer their customers. Bill Allen, Director of Marketing for Minuteman Power Technologies, said in an interview , “Businesses have become more and more reliant on their technology … and power management has become increasingly important,”  even in context of cloud computing. Allen added that, “reliability is a key issue” for power management.