Winter Back-upWhen we think about the Sunshine State and electricity consumption, we are inclined to picture high demand for energy on a steamy July afternoon. It seems logical to pay special attention to safeguarding your business from power outages during the summer months. While it is important to make sure that energy demand on an exceptionally hot and humid summer afternoon doesn’t stop your workday, winter demand can be just as high. As Floridians we get cold when the temperature drops much below 70°. You’d be surprised how many space heaters and electric blankets get turned on in our state, not just up north in Jacksonville but down south in Miami and Melbourne also. In fact TECO and Progress Energy, the utility providers for the majority of central Florida, report record single-day electricity usage records as being the result of a cold front in January of 2010, not one of our notoriously hot summers. Winter Electricity Demand As always, record demands can easily lead to blackouts. Power outages caused by high demand for energy tend to happen at the beginning of the day. Think about it: demand will be high all night when thermostats are set to warm the house along with other heating elements. Then everyone wakes up and turns on televisions, radios and hot water heaters that all need even more energy without turning off the heat. This surge in demand can cause the utility provider to scramble to supply enough power and often results in multiple power outages to start the day. By the time the utility provider has mobilized their staff to fix the first outage, several others likely pile up, leaving some without power for the entire day if not longer. That is why electric companies make pleas to the community to limit consumption on a cold day. Think about it: power companies sell electricity for profit, so if they are asking you to use less electricity, they are basically admitting an inability to cover demand and warning that you will likely experience some form of disruption in power supply. Can your business afford to be put on hold for a day? Especially at a time of year where vacations are likely, so you need to get as much work done in a day as possible. Or at a time of year where your sales increase to the point that you become profitable? The bottom line here is that at some point, your bottom line will depend upon your ability to produce electricity, at least for a limited amount of time. To do this you need to have a standby system or set of generators on hand that can handle your electricity demands. Don’t confuse winter months and lack of electrical demand. Yes, we are lucky enough in Florida to be able to turn the air conditioner off during many winter days. Don’t forget the peak days that create surges for the utility providers and ultimately everyone who needs electricity. We will leave you with a couple of facts. Florida Energy Facts
Sources: U.S. Energy Information Administration
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The Power to Save LivesToday’s post is dedicated to the ability that generators have to save lives. Yes, they can absolutely save businesses money, but in many instances they can do more. Think about all of the facilities that people depend on for life sustaining services. In addition think about all of the ways that backup or portable power can help reduce casualties. Hospitals Hospitals are the first type of facility on the list when it comes to saving lives. Patients who are in surgery or critical care units could literally die if the hospital goes without power for even a few moments. Patients hooked up to ventilators would not be able to breathe, while others who are on operating tables would not receive proper care and would lose blood if the power is discontinued. Hospitals save lives on a daily basis, and electricity is just as vital a tool for a hospital as doctors and scalpels are. Water Treatment Water treatment facilities clean water and oversee its distribution to the community. The overwhelming majority of citizens receive their water from water treatment facilities. Without the electricity that they need to operate, people would go without one of the most important things that our bodies need on a daily basis. It would not take long for stores to be out of bottled water. Soon enough people would be resorting to less clean sources of water which is one of the easiest ways to spread disease. Power Plants This is an interesting thing to think about. When the power goes out, the first entity to be blamed is the power plant. While it is true that providing power is their responsibility, from time to time they experience technical difficulties. If they have proper standby systems in place, these difficulties will be far easier to overcome. Not only will they still be able to provide power (likely on a limited basis), but they will be able to operate inside the facility effectively so as to be able to fix whatever has broken. Power plants supply large geographic areas with electricity. TECO provides more than just the city of Tampa with power, but many of the surrounding communities. The same can be said about Florida Power or any of the other large entities that are involved in powering the state of Florida. Even the power company needs a generator. Military The military currently uses generators and is thinking about new ways to incorporate them. Generators can restore utilities and provide field hospitals with power that can save lives. They are also looking into generators that run off of non-fossil fuel sources to use in the field. It is dangerous and costly to send units back and forth between bases and field outposts with fresh supplies and additional fuel for vehicles. Generators that run off of solar power or rechargeable batteries can be used in the field to provide lighting, electricity for computers and a variety of other things. These new-age generators will keep our troops safer, while giving them the tools they need to do their jobs. The technology that the military is currently developing and using will likely become available to consumers in the future. Their innovations could be the future of our business. Standby systems and generators are useful to almost every person on the planet. Very few people choose to live without power. Between the need for lights and the climate in Florida, electricity is a must. If you want to ensure that your power will always be available, feel free to visit us online to find out about the products and service packages that we offer. Sources: Department of Environmental Protection-Florida
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A Little Pro-activity Goes A Long WayManaging a business takes a lot of work and attention to detail. If you are starting a new business or changing the location of your current business you have a lot of bases to cover. One of them is an emergency plan. Emergency plans are your go to guides when something unexpected arises. It might be a natural disaster, like one of our famous Florida hurricanes, or a man made mistake that affects your business. It really doesn’t matter what causes the shift from normal operation, you must be prepared to recover as quickly as possible and get back to business. Power needs will be an issue. Every business needs electricity to function. You can guarantee yourself power with a standby system. Not every commercial property that you rent will already have one installed, in fact most won’t. This is because, as necessary as they are, standby systems represent an expense to your business. It’s understandable that you are trying to keep your costs down but every business needs insurance. You take out worker’s compensation insurance for your employees; you might even pay a monthly premium for disaster insurance for your business. Think about a generator like tangible disaster insurance that won’t make you fill out a million forms when you need it to get to work for you. In order to properly plan for a disaster you should make a standby system a part of your business plan from the beginning. Expect to include it in your financials so that you can budget accordingly. Yes, you will pay for the equipment up front but ask your accountant how he or she plans to depreciate it. A generator is an asset and depreciation means that you can allocate the cost of the asset over the useful life of the equipment. In realistic terms this means that every month, you can reduce your taxes a little bit by reporting that you spent a portion of the cost of the standby system. It will take a little longer for you to realize the tax benefits but remember you are investing in your business. Once the equipment is part of your financial plan you will see how easily it becomes a part of your disaster plan. Plan what you will need to have powered and make sure that your generator is hooked up to the breakers that power those areas. You will need to decide what is most important to your business. If you have a data center you will obviously need to make sure that your servers do not go down. Beyond that you will want to consider:
If you think about it, your emergency plan is next to useless without power. You will have to wait for the utility company to restore power in order to get back to work. Unless you are a gas station along an escape route, a hospital or a government building don’t expect to be near the front of the line to have your utilities put back on line. Sources:
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Transfer Switch: Automatic or ManualWhen it comes down to it, your generator needs a little help from its friends. One of its best friends is a transfer switch. Transfer switches control the flow of electricity into your facility. They “transfer” the power source for your facility from the utility provider to the standby system. The standby system then takes over your electrical load and makes sure that you weather the storm. Transfer switches are a good thing to have. Not only do they make changing power sources easy and help kick your generator into action, but they are also helpful to utility workers. Most of the time power is sent from the power lines to your house. Sometimes your standby system can send power back through the power lines, a process called backfeeding. If this happens, a utility worker who comes into contact with the line may be injured by the unexpected electricity. Transfer switches help to alleviate this risk and make things safer for everyone. Think about transfer switches like electrical middle men, they communicate between different sources of electricity and make sure that everything runs smoothly. You have two options when it comes to transfer switches:
So which one is best for you? While either option can work and ensure that you have access to power when you need it, we will make a case for automatic transfer switches. They have some distinct advantages:
The type of switch that you use is a matter of personal preference. While automatic transfer switches can make things a little easier, a manual one will do the job if used correctly. If you are making a purchase we would recommend that you go with an automatic switch. If you have an older system, you can have a manual switch replaced with a newer automatic version. If you have more questions about switches we address them here. Sources:
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Brown Outs Happen but They Shouldn’t Stop BusinessA quality standby system will ensure that your facility remains up and running, no matter what happens with your utility provider. In some cases it is not an all-out blackout or total loss of power that sets your operations back; instead it is a brownout. A brownout is a time period in which a utility provider cannot supply electricity due to high demand. High demand can be exactly what it sounds like–an instance where too many people are using too much power–or it can be caused by the electrical supply going down due to damaged equipment. As Floridians we know that it doesn’t matter whether you live in Jacksonville or Miami–either scenario can happen. Sometimes the problem is that too much power is being used. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that Florida is among the states with the highest per capita energy usage in the country. This is largely due to our need for air conditioning the majority of the year. On top of air conditioning, businesses have other electrical needs: lights, computer, printers, copiers and a variety of other electrical equipment. Combine this with residential needs and you might just have a recipe for a brownout. Strangely, some of our largest need for electricity in a single day has come in the winter months. The winter of 2010 was one of the coldest for Florida. In January of 2010 the Tampa Electric Company reported single day usage of 4,742 watts. Considering that Progress Energy, a neighboring utility provider, was dealing with similar usage, brownouts occurred all over West Central Florida. Schools in both Hillsborough and Pasco Counties went without power for several hours. Had the schools had proper generator setups, students would not have endured outside temperatures inside classrooms on a day where lows in some affected areas were in the 20’s. In other cases storms can cause brownouts. Fallen limbs and even lighting strikes can disable individual transformers, causing particular areas to go without power. Frequent storms involving lightning and wind affect every area of Florida. Business owners in Sarasota have just as much need for a standby generator as their counterparts in Port St. Lucie. Regardless of the storm, or the location, a good generator will keep your A/C running and your computer network intact. Customers out of state might not understand when you tell them that you cannot operate due to rain, unless of course you happen to be a baseball team. As the population grows, our power needs will increase. Hopefully our infrastructure will develop along with the population, but that is not guaranteed. Certain areas, especially densely populated ones, may experience more and more brownouts in the future. It is our responsibility to be prepared for the future, whatever it may bring. Sources:
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