Lessons From the Storms of 2021: Planning for Blackouts
Winter storms in February 2021 rocked just about everyone from the Canadian border to Mexico. Parts of the deep southern desert of Texas received nearly a foot of snow, while rolling blackouts from Winter Storm Uri left 4.5 million homes and businesses without power in Texas alone. Also, the 2020 hurricane season was the most active on record. It’s hot, sultry summer time now, but winter is right around the corner, and we are already in the midst of hurricane season again. To ensure your business and livelihood are protected from future blackouts, you need to invest in a backup generator.
Diesel Generator Benefits
Industrial generators are most commonly powered by diesel, and for a few excellent reasons:
- Diesel engines have an excellent torque curve, which is highly desirable in a fixed-RPM application.
- Diesel engines are constructed of heavier and more durable materials to compensate for the high compression ratio.
- Diesel engines are best suited for low, constant RPM operations (agriculture tractors and combines, bulldozers and excavators, irrigation pumps, etc.). However, they are well suited to run for prolonged periods.
- Diesel is readily available at nearly any gas station since diesel pickups and cars have become a lot more popular in the last two decades.
Things to Consider When Planning for Emergency Power Needs
A hard-mounted diesel generator is a great option for just about any brick-and-mortar facility where backup power generation is mandatory (police, fire, and EMS stations, emergency rooms and urgent care facilities, air traffic control facilities, etc.), or when your business needs to stay open regardless of the weather. But these permanent solutions, while reliable and a fantastic all-round option, are costly. Unfortunately, it is impossible to put a specific price on the installation cost. Still, for a 500kW or 1,000kW generator, the hard mount could be tens of thousands, maybe into hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“Don’t get caught this year wishing you had backup power, make sure you do…”
The thing about a hard-mounted generator is that you are paying for it, regardless of the length of your stormy season, whether or not you ever use it. In the case of the aforementioned crushing winter storm in Texas, there is no guarantee that you would even use it next winter. But you certainly don’t want to be without a backup power solution, should you need it.
An excellent option for you and your business or organization is placing a generator on a rental reservation. You can have the advantages of having a generator at your disposal but only need to pay a reservation fee to hold the unit and then pay for whatever duration it is actually in use.
How Much Power Do You Need in an Emergency Situation?
Since you know you can place a unit on reserve, you need to determine what size unit you need. Some applications have much higher power requirements than others. For example, hospitals and air traffic control centers have enormous power requirements, while commercial offices and retailers may not require nearly as much juice.
According to the Department of Energy, approximately 22.5-kilowatt-hours are required per square foot in a commercial office building. That is broken down into several key areas, and some of these can be reduced for a baseline requirement to work off . There is no need to reserve more power than is required.
When it comes to drawing electrical energy, refrigeration is the biggest power drain, followed by lighting. If you are running a restaurant, grocer, or convenience store, refrigeration is non-negotiable. Lighting is the second-highest consumer of energy in a commercial office building, so cutting down on lighting to ensure power for critical areas may take priority.
Lessons Learned From Unexpected Weather Events
If there is anything we have learned over the last 18 months, it’s that we need to be proactive and prepared for anything. South Texas doesn’t even get cold, let alone have snow lying on the ground, yet there they were with a foot of snow. Nearly 70% of Texans lost power at some point during Uri. Hurricanes caused $60-$65-billion in economic damage last season, with landfalls stretching from the farthest southern tip of Texas, all the way to North Carolina. Don’t get caught this year wishing you had backup power, make sure you do, by reserving a unit today.
