Campus power outages: what researchers can do
The startup of the campus’ new Central Heating Plant (CHP) and several occurrences of extreme and violent weather during the past year highlight the need for research equipment to be protected against power failures.
Last summer, storms caused numerous problems, including a five-hour campus-wide blackout on July 18 and a rainstorm that flooded 20 buildings on July 22.
Patrick Daly, director of Physical Plant, said his staff is working hard to remedy CHP-related power outages so that the risk for losing research materials and data will be decreased.
“We understand how important this is to the campus research community,” said Daly. “We’ve already solved a number of the issues with the CHP’s electrical distribution systems that caused the recent power outages and the few bugs that remain will be resolved by the end of the spring semester.”
According to Daly, there are actions that faculty and departments can take to further decrease risk to equipment due to power outages.
“For faculty in newer buildings with standby generators we strongly recommend purchasing uninterruptable power supplies (UPS) for sensitive equipment that can keep the equipment going for one minute,” he said. “This is how long it usually takes the emergency standby generators to start and pick up load.”
The UPS devices will work for power bumps due to the CHP or those caused by outside conditions, said Daly.
For researchers in older buildings without emergency generators, Daly recommends purchasing UPS devices that can keep their equipment powered for 10 seconds to safeguard against the short power bumps.
“For equipment in these buildings, however, the UPS will not help in extended power outages,” says Daly. “As we commission and debug the Central Heating Plant, power outages of the magnitude we experienced last summer should become rare. In those instances, situations will have to be dealt with on a case by case basis.”
Daly said he and his staff are in communication with other administrative divisions regarding the situation. For more information on purchasing protective equipment, contact Ray Jackson, assistant director for Utilities, at 545-0605.
This article was written for the Research ACCESS Newsletter by Karen J. Hayes of the Research Liaison and Development.
March 11, 2009.
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