Power Outages Present a Real Threat to Business Continuity

Chloride, one of Europe’s leading suppliers of Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) systems and services, is strongly advising UK businesses to deploy resilient UPS systems in order to protect their mission critical equipment and processes. Chloride has taken this initiative following worrying reports from CapGemini, which have confirmed the growing fears of the business community regarding power availability, stating that electricity output has fallen by 2.2%, the lowest level in 10 years.

Power cuts are a real and increasingly likely threat to business continuity throughout the UK, due to an ageing energy generation infrastructure and reduced capacity to meet energy demand. During 2007-2008, the National Grid reported over 600 events where transmission circuits were disconnected automatically, or by urgent manual switching.

Chloride carried out an analysis of its 2,300 UPS systems currently connected to its unique LIFE.net monitoring system and found that, during an average month, the system recorded more than 450,000 voltage spikes, dips, irregularities and breaks in the electricity supply, all of which can be harmful to mission critical equipment and processes.  Additionally, Chloride found that power failures occurred every 832 hours and alarmingly, brownouts occurred every three hours.

“By analysing the information from our LIFE.net system, we found that each of the 2,300 UPS systems monitored in the UK protect organisations from disturbances 200 times a month, or seven times per day,” confirms Chloride’s Technical Support Manager, Rob Tanzer. “Last year the National Grid reported 49 single events of power loss to customer premises. While this highlights the potential risk to business continuity, it must be remembered that brownouts, spikes and surges can all harm sensitive electronic equipment.”

Chloride’s LIFE.net supervises over 2,300 of its UPS systems across the UK. The service allows Chloride to monitor the AC supply as well as disturbances and quality of power, which are logged in the system with all other power related events. 

In recent studies by the University of California, it was estimated that an hour of downtime could cost some organisations up to $2 million. The study revealed the extent of fiscal damage caused by power outages, not mentioning the long-term consequences of lost reputation, customer loyalty and damage to brand image. Businesses must pay attention to the following stages when implementing a power protection infrastructure:

·   Design: By determining the load and the operating environment, businesses can determine the appropriate design for their backup power solutions. Many standby systems installed are incapable of fulfilling emergency roles, so it is vital that organisations should consult a trusted supplier when designing a critical power support system. It is important to keep designs simple to minimise potential points of failure, and, by selecting the appropriate solution, it is possible to reduce operating costs over the lifetime of the product. Businesses need to consult reputable experts, such as Chloride, to gain expert solution design advice.

·   Installation: A common mistake made by many organisations is compromising quality for price. Often poor quality of components, low quality workmanship, under sizing of cables, incorrect settings on adjustable components and circuit breakers can significantly increase the likelihood of a failure. Businesses should look to install solutions that have a proven track record of reliability and scalability.

·   Maintenance and remote monitoring: Regular maintenance is vital.  Once a company has made a commitment to protecting its data, and made a significant investment in products to do this job, then it is false economy to fail to properly maintain a UPS system. It’s worth remembering that even though there might not be any outward signs, the UPS system is still performing its task, just as it was when it was first installed. It is essential that it is maintained in optimum condition for when it is required most, during a power failure. Remote monitoring solutions provide businesses with a competitive advantage. Some of the leading solutions monitor power consumed by the UPS system as well as the quality of power being fed into the system. By partnering with a UPS supplier, businesses can drastically improve the reliability of their systems through consistent level of service support. Additionally, when choosing a UPS system or supplier, it is important to make sure that the chosen vendor is able to provide maintenance and service to third party equipment. This approach allows businesses to use a single company to service all their critical power equipment and provides cost effective service architecture. 

“There is more to back up power than simply installing a UPS or a generator,” adds Tanzer. “Facility Managers are often employed by organisations to look after backup power systems, but often lack the in-house resources or technical expertise to carry out appropriate maintenance. Clearly, it is important to work with a power protection specialist to ensure that systems are designed, implemented and maintained appropriately. Where mission critical applications exist, serious consideration needs to be given to backup power systems as a critical element of business continuity plans.”

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