Power Protection FEATURED ARTICLE

The people of Fairbanks’ Chena River area experienced a brief power outage, but it wasn’t due to technical means. A raven flew into a GVEA substation, which caused arcing, thus leading to opened breakers and a subsequent outage lasting about an hour.

According to local news sources, the utility was able to reroute power to most of the affected areas from other substations

Outages are commonly caused by interference from trees or animals. Trees planted near power lines are one cause of outages, as tree branches and limbs can sway into power lines and electrical equipment. Even brief contact with vegetation or wildlife can cause an outage. This is common during major storms as tree limbs blow into power lines and can cause outages. While some utility companies employ environmentally safe deterrents to keep wildlife away from equipment, sometimes contact with animals can also cause these outages.

Critters are sneaking into substations, putting themselves at risk of electrocution and the utility’s customers at risk for power outages, is just a reality.  

For example, when birds make a nest inside a substation, snakes come slithering through the fence in search of eggs. At the same time, squirrels are scurrying across the power lines and using them as highways through the substation. This can all spell disaster for an otherwise uninterrupted day.

Some utility companies might dedicate portions of their budgets to wildlife and vegetation management. Even with protective measures in place, residents and businesses must be mindful of their own needs and have backup plans for when outages do occur.

Investing in an uninterruptable power supply (UPS) is a good start. A UPS is similar to car insurance: you need to have it, but hope you never have to use it. Like an automobile, a computer is an expensive investment you want to protect. In the event of a blackout, a UPS instantly switches your computer to emergency battery backup power and lets you work through brief power outages without losing data or experiencing other damaging effects. These can include hardware degradation, keyboard lockup and motherboard damage. This is especially important for local small businesses that do not have large sums of money to invest in data center backups or other hosted models.

Minuteman UPS/Para Systems (News - Alert) provides power protection solutions and offers an array of products, from outlet surge protectors to UPSs, all of which are designed to keep businesses going despite what wildlife is doing outside. The most obvious advantage of an uninterruptible power supply is, of course, the maintenance of power. Do you have a backup plan for when Mother Nature strikes?