Years of maintenance challenges and increasing wildfire risks resulted in an untenable situation for many California businesses, educational facilities and residences this fall: planned power outages. While a planned power outage provides some warning, most users have not been fully aware of the potential impact nor have they been prepared for the associated costs.

11月18日，太平洋天然气和电气（PG＆E）发行了7th计划中断通知今年. This outage affected more than 300,000 customers (almost 1,000,000 people) in PG&E’s Northern California service area.

虽然天气可能会在我们前往冬季时冷静，但我们知道将来会有停电事件，这应该驱使设施团队评估他们的准备工作。

Questions to Ask

Our integrated team atHED在过去的几周考虑什么these outages mean in the larger context of overall building operations and mission resiliency. While these events are technically scheduled (with small warning windows), their extended durations have resulted in unexpected impacts. One university urged its students to avoid going to campus for fear of students’ devices pulling power away from mission critical resources such as research projects. A super-computer facility discovered that while there was emergency power provided for a controlled shutdown, there was no contingency for a long-term, non-emergency power loss in an otherwise “normal” business day, resulting in lost revenue and future scheduling challenges.

类似的故事导致越来越多的问题鉴于这些事件应解决：

  • Is there any backup power available (generator, on-site solar etc.)?
  • 是否将负载添加到备份 /紧急系统与设计中？
  • Have emergency systems been maintained? e.g. Have the emergency batteries been tested and replaced?
  • 发电机有多少燃料？
  • What other services will be affected? Water? Natural Gas? Sewer systems?
  • Will your system need a black start generator to engage after a complete power loss?

Planning for the Future

尽管尚未确定停机的长期解决方案，但公用事业客户需要立即开始为下一个活动计划。某些客户（例如医院）由代码要求为停电做好准备，但是这些要求的范围有限，当然也不会进入其他企业，在这些业务中，电力损失也可能具有很高的影响。

短期

每个用户都应评估他们的需求和潜在影响。如果用户选择通过生成或存储添加电源，则需要与实用程序和用户进行空间，切换需求并教育用户有关系统的应用和操作。便携式备份电源系统可以在紧急情况下提供，但是它们需要与提供商签约，以确保有足够的燃料并确定现成的连接手段。

主动与当地电力供应商和相关监管机构互动也很重要。用户现在应审查潜在的“无岛”条款的电力合同。此类条款要求用户在紧急电源损失的情况下不会产生功率超出特定过程和紧急负荷。随着这些新事件变得越来越频繁地“计划”，根据定义，它们不再有资格成为此类条款下的紧急事件。将需要与当地的空气质量管理区进行其他讨论，以确保不会像2000年代初期加利福尼亚遭受滚动停电的情况那样征收罚款，并且某些设施在批准的津贴之外使用了紧急电源系统。

Beyond the Short Term

There are numerous approaches available to address future outages and each facility will have a different degree of need. Consider renewable energy sources and storage devices, cogen, trigen, or fuel cells, but simply identifying a preferred power source won’t be enough. We all need to understand utilities, code, regulatory limitations, space planning, and other limiting factors. The challenge will be finding the right mix of solutions (generation and use reduction) to unlock a site’s potential for the successful navigation of the next planned power outage.

肯尼斯·戈洛夫科（Kenneth Golovko）HED. A well-recognized, national leader in integrated design, with a particular focus on sustainability, Ken has over 25 years of experience in design and project leadership. HED’s 400+ people serve clients in a broad range of market sectors from eight U.S. offices including Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and Sacramento.