Re: power outages & generators

January 20, 2001

> Our generator is great. Once. If power goes out and stays

> out. Last summer, we learned about a 'quirk' that may also

> exist in your system. 1/Commercial power drops. 2/Emergency

> generator comes on, takes over load. 3/Commercial power

> restored; emergency generator begins shut-down sequence.

>

> BUT..... if commercial power goes out again before the

> emergency generator completes its shut-down/reset procedure,

> the system doesn't sense a power interruption and the

> generator doesn't come back on line. It gets real dark

> down here, real quick. Noisy, too, as all the alarms on the

> UPS scream at once. The buttons on the telephone don't even

> light up (although the bells work well). The only solution

> is to go thru the basement to the generator control panel,

> start the generator at its underground home, and manually

> switch it 'on.'

Rich, once our generator starts, it stays on for at least 30 minutes

regardless of what commercial power does. Our local power company

has warned us (mostly for field personnel) that when a circuit blows,

it does an auto reset in about 5-30 seconds, then another in about

5 minutes (they warned us so the officers don't " assume " the line is

dead because there hasn't been sparks for a few minutes). It was

also felt that giving the generator a half hour to warm up and run

was better on the engine than just a couple of minutes at a time.

You might have your techs check and see if something similar is

possible for you.

Also, when we rebuilt in '88, they dual wired the building so that we

have some (clearly marked) plugs for the computers and radios

(filtered through the large UPS bank in the back room) and some plugs

that are on standard power (the generator feeds both the UPS and the

non-essential circuits). We have a couple of smaller UPS tied into

individual computers (like our 911 server and client), but only

because they came with the equipment (state provided) and the phone

co really likes seeing them there. We also have a (large) redundant

UPS for the main file server (again, it was in the grant and you

can't have " too much " UPS capacity, particularly for critical

equipment).

Roy Mumaw

CAPD Arroyo Grande

Recommended Posts