Power Protection FEATURED ARTICLE

A small plane crashed on the Wilcox Technical High School baseball field in Meriden, Connecticut, knocking out power across the city last week.  No students were on the fields shortly before 7:00pm when the plane, which had taken off from Westchester County Airport, crashed into a high-tension power line, causing the outage.  The incident happened when the plane, itself, lost power.  The pilot and one other passenger suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were taken for treatment to nearby hospitals.

As police officers were placing temporary stop signs to help prevent accidents with lights and traffic signals out of commission, two men were caught attempting to steal one of them.  The two men were arrested and face multiple charges.

Fortunately, the crash didn’t result in more serious injuries, but it is exactly the kinds of situation businesses are powerless to do anything about when it comes to powering their technology.  They’re at the mercy of Mother Nature, man-made accidents, and sometimes just bad luck.

But, just as the police officers were doing their best to prevent additional problems, business leaders have the obligation to protect their operations.   What most of them don’t realize is power outages may seem minor inconveniences but, in reality, pose significant threats to business continuity.

The reason?  Power surges cause line voltage to fluctuate, which, if not regulated, can damage sensitive technology – from laptops and printers to servers and switches.  The damage may take time to identify, and replacement parts or equipment could take days or even weeks to acquire, install, and configure before business can operate normally.

Power protection systems with integrated UPS are designed to prevent just that scenario by regulating power before it is distributed to equipment.  That eliminates the risk of damage, while the UPS components keep systems functional – long enough to be manually shut down, or even keeping systems operational for a period with higher capacity systems.