Power Protection FEATURED ARTICLE

In like a lion, out like a lamb. That’s what March is supposed to do, at least the saying says so. Certain parts of the country aren’t experiencing the “lamb” part of spring, as many are still getting some wild snowstorms.

In Lake Park, Iowa, an early-April snowstorm left public works scrambling, as streets were still clogged with snow, not to mention there was a neighborhood power failure, all thanks to a snow removal vehicle. According to local news outlets, what made matters worse was the utility folk were in a training program, so no one was readily available to respond to the damaged lines. City officials then had to pull from public works crews to address the power outage.

This highlights the need to plan for every contingency, even when the weather doesn’t represent the time of year.

Data suggests that 70 percent of outages in the U.S. are caused by severe weather. Businesses need to stay up on their systems and avoid the “Ds” of power protection: downtime, damage, and data loss.

There are power saving UPS systems which can help with saving power and overall power protection strategy. Even if you have a smaller budget to work with, there is a set-up which you can easily afford.

Continuity of operation is the most basic feature a UPS offers. When plugged into an AC wall outlet, the UPS unit maintains a charge on its batteries during normal operation. Built-in electronics sense when external power is not present and switches the UPS output from wall power to AC power produced through its batteries and built-in inverter.

By switching to battery power, UPS devices prevent momentary power glitches from resetting equipment and – in the event of a long term outage - give operators the chance to shut down equipment in an orderly and safe manner. The result of the proper operation of a UPS is higher productivity and less data loss.