Power Protection FEATURED ARTICLE

Some 3,500 customers in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., experienced a power outage recently which news reports blamed on cracked insulators. The incident led to what the Northwest Florida Daily News called a “blue sky power outage.”

“We can’t pinpoint a cause, but we suspect it was a couple of insulators that cracked, causing wires to come loose,” Gulf Power spokesman Jeff Rogers told the newspaper. “Usually that’s due to previous lightning damage.”

The problem was blamed on suspected faulty wiring, he added. That in turn led to a malfunction at a Gulf Power substation. “This type of outage doesn’t happen very often,” Rogers added.

Fort Walton Beach Police directed traffic until traffic lights resumed operation. Yet it took about five hours for residences, schools and businesses to be brought back on line. A few schools were impacted by the outage, the newspaper further reported, and care was taken to ensure student safety.

The outage is a reminder how products such as those from Minuteman Power Technologies can help to save data when power goes down. For instance, an uninterruptible power supply will provide energy so data can be saved or a back-up can take place before any technology completely shuts down. The company also offers external battery packs, and surge protection is helpful, as well.

Having flexibility is important in such situations. The Minuteman RPM Series 8 & 16-Port Remote Power Managers let businesses manage power for connected devices such as servers, switches, routers, modems, security devices and telephone systems – from a remote location. Locked-up devices can be reset from a PC, laptop computer, smartphone or tablet with Minuteman products as well.

An average power outage lasts 20 minutes; the recent one in Fort Walton Beach lasted five hours. An average extended power outage can last closer to eight hours. Winter is coming up, which means ice storms and heavy snows in the northern regions, which can also lead to outages. Are you ready?