How much back-up power is enough?

The area where our company is located has been the victim of several power outages recently. We do have UPSs on the servers but that only covers us for so long. None of the workstations have any type of UPS installed. Management has asked us to look into the costs of being able to run for a period of time (which they didn’t specify) without commercial power. How much back-up power will be enough? – Via the Internet

The area where our company is located has been the victim of several power outages recently. We have UPSs on the servers but that only covers us for so long. None of the workstations have any type of UPS installed. Management has asked us to look into the costs of being able to run for a period of time (which they didn’t specify) without commercial power. How much back-up power will be enough?

– Via the Internet

This is a question companies are being forced to examine more and more. Since management didn’t quantify the amount of time you need to run without commercial power, look at the average time you were without power as a starting point. Then start by adding two hours to that figure, then two hours to the next figure, etc. I would probably stop at around 8 hours unless your company is a two- or three-shift operation, then you’ll need to look at some type of continuous power solution, which won’t be cheap.

You can add capacity to a UPS system in most cases or buy one that is expandable on a modular basis to give you more run time as your needs grow. This will require more and more floor space. Another cost consideration is the replacement of the back-up batteries, which will have to be replaced periodically.

At some point, it will become cost or space prohibitive to have a UPS with enough capacity and run time to keep things running for very long. You will also want to look at having some type of back-up power generator for longer term situations. Look at it this way – the UPS should have enough run time to handle short-term power loss, and if the power loss will be more than a short period of time, keep you in power until you can get the back-up generator online. You will need to get a qualified electrician involved in this kind of situation because a power cutover panel will need to be installed so you can cut the building over to the generator as the power source. There are automatic and manual ways to do this. You’ll also need to determine how much of the building you want to be able to power in an emergency and potentially have some of your electrical panels rewired to only feed those areas that you powered when running on a generator.

The bottom line is that you can get just about any amount of run time you want. It comes down to how much it will cost to buy, install and maintain.