Withstanding Power Outages With a Generator

Power Outages Affect Everyone

The electrical grid serves customers ranging from residential to industry (including health care and emergency services). Understanding what the electrical grid is can be useful in determining the factors that contribute to power outages. The basic concept of an electrical grid is:
 

1. Power Generation - Large generators produce high-voltage electricity. Generators can be steam driven (fossil fuel and nuclear plants) and water driven (dams and rivers).
2. High Voltage Lines - High voltage carries power through lines to substations.
3. Substations - Receive high-voltage from power plants and step-down voltage using transformers. Routes power to grid associate transformers and poles.
4. Poles and Transformers - Transformers receive voltage from substation and step down for residential use.
5. Industry Substations - Many times factories and industrial facilities have dedicated substations. The substations are equipped with transformers that step down high voltage to various levels based on the requirements of the facility.

 This is often referred to as our electrical infrastructure. If viewing the infrastructure as a chain, each link would be a link. As with any chain, when a link is broken the chain breaks.
 
Weather is a major contributor to broken links, resulting in power outages. The United States Department of Energy calculated that in 2016 Americans experienced a power loss lasting at least four hours.
 
Be Proactive by Planning for When an Outage Will Happen
 
Many factors can cause a power outage. Both nature and human error can result in the destruction of grid components.
 
Power generation transformers, high voltage lines, or substations failures can have long repair times. These failures affect both residential and industry. Extreme weather such as hurricanes and earthquakes are contributors.
 
Lightning strikes on transformers, destruction to poles, and damage caused by human error cause power outages. Damage is often isolated to individual areas on the grid. Repair times are shorter for this type of damage. However, if the damage is widespread, repair time is longer.
 
Be Prepared with an Emergency Backup Generator
No one can predict when a power loss is going to occur. Power companies can force rolling blackouts etc., but no one can predict an accident or weather-caused outages.
 
The best defense against power loss is to have an onsite emergency standby generator. This unit should be ready and waiting to be put into service.
In most cases, diesel generators are the best option in the event of an outage. A residence, factory, hospital or any facility can have a backup or emergency power system installed to limit the overall risk exposure.
 
A low hour pre-owned generator set is an affordable solution to any power generation requirement. Generator Source is one of the world's largest used generator providers. Our selection ranges from generators for light commercial applications to large industrial, datacenter and hospital facilities. We can help design your system from ground up or upgrade an existing system.
 
Story Summary
 
What causes power outages?
The most common causes of power outages include;

• Severe weather (storms, high winds, ice)
• Equipment failures
• Trees falling on power lines
• Vehicle accidents damaging utility poles
• Animal interference with equipment
• Human error

How long do power outages typically last?
The average power outage in the U.S. lasts about 4 hours. However, outages can range from a few minutes to several days depending on the cause and extent of damage.
 
How can I prepare for power outages?
Consider purchasing a backup generator
 
Do businesses and hotels have backup power?
Many larger businesses and hotels have backup generators to power critical systems during outages. However, smaller establishments may not have backup power capabilities.
 
How do power companies restore electricity?
Utility companies prioritize repairs to restore power to the most customers in the shortest time. They focus first on power plants, transmission lines, and substations before moving to local distribution lines.

administrator | 4/16/2018 9:27:57 AM | 0 comments