Power Protection FEATURED ARTICLE

According to the National Interagency Fire Center, 2015 has been the most devastating on U.S. record for wildfires, especially in California. More than 11 million acres have burned so far this year.

These weather conditions have also been the cause of a lot of power outages across California. On October 9, 2015 the temperature sign at Vanowen Street and Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Canoga Park displayed a temperature of 107 degrees at 3 p.m. We’re barely halfway through the month and it is already being reported that the October heat wave might be one for the record books.

Last Friday’s triple digit temperature had a strong effect on several California neighborhoods. Thousand experienced power outages according to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Around 8 p.m., the heat caused circuits to overload in Westwood and West Los Angeles leaving about 4,500 customers without power.

An hour earlier, more than 2,000 were left without power in Lawndale after electrical equipment suffered heat related problems. In addition, another 2,000 people had no power all afternoon in Diamond Bar, and areas in Marina del Rey were also affected sometime after 9 p.m.

While the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said that power was restored relatively quickly to almost all of the affected areas, if October is going to be one for the record books, I am sure that we can expect to continue to see outages across the state.

Power outages, such as those being experienced in California, can have a devastating effect on many levels. Regardless of the reason for the growing number of power failures and outages, when the power does go out, there is no way to tell how long it will be out. Even if it is only for one minute, the amount of data that can be lost can be disastrous.

Equipment today can be very sensitive, not to mention expensive, whether it is a rack of servers in a datacenter, or a single home computer, having a reliable UPS, such as those provided by Minuteman Power Technologies (News - Alert) is crucial to maintaining equipment, data and peace of mind.