Rolling Blackouts: 3 Great Ways To Protect Your Business | EnergyLink
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Rolling Blackouts: 3 Great Ways To Protect Your Business

electric grid facing blackouts

Texas hit headlines this week with scheduled rolling blackouts after severe weather warnings and the power grid buckling. More than 4 million people across Texas found themselves without power due to extreme energy demand and overloaded utility plants struggling to deal with being frozen.

“No matter which way you cut it, this is a massive failure for a grid and a state that holds up energy and electricity as a shining example.”

Varun Rai, director of the Energy Institute at the University of Texas, at Austin

When events like this happen, it can put a huge strain on businesses that rely heavily on the grid for daily operations. Here at EnergyLink we have compiled three great ways to minimize disruptions by forward planning.

1. CHP

CHP can be a reliable and cost-effective alternative to installing back-up generators to provide protection against rolling blackouts. Although a CHP system is typically selected for a facility due to its ability to reduce operating costs and overall emissions, power outage protection can also be designed
into the system to efficiently provide electricity and thermal energy to the site on a continuous basis.

CHP systems can be configured in a number of ways to meet the specific reliability needs and risk
profiles of various customers, helping to prevent disruptions from grid outages during extreme weather.

2. Solar + Batteries

Battery backup systems store any excess energy solar panels produce, so energy can be pulled from the battery when necessary. This is great during times when you need to use more solar energy than your panels are producing, for example during rolling blackouts.

Since many states have demand-based rate plans, it can end up being more for energy usage during peak hours, just this week, spot prices for electricity jumped a ridiculous 3,466% from Friday, hitting the cap put in place by regulators.

However, if energy stored in the battery can be used, this increase in price per kWh can be avoided, saving money. Another benefit to a backup battery providing power in case of outages is it does so without producing greenhouse gas emissions. 

3. Backup Generator For Blackouts

As it states in the name, a commercial backup generator is a consistent power supply for businesses. It ensures all of a company’s important, profit-generating systems continue to operate even in the cases of emergency, such as rolling blackouts. By installing a backup generator, it can reduce losses and speed up the recovery after power outages.

Businesses can benefit from security systems, heat, air-conditioning, refrigerators, freezers, lights, computers or other office equipment running 24 hours a day without interference of an outage. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, “commercial generators can help prevent the interruption of operations at businesses and critical infrastructure facilities like hospitals, water treatment facilities, telecommunications networks, and emergency response agencies.”

Backup generators are integral to helping companies overcome financial strain from operations going down during extreme weather and outages.

Knowing how to protect your company from the kind of events going on in Texas this week can be hard to navigate. Luckily, EnergyLink has experience creating bespoke solutions. Reach out to a member of the team today for a free energy audit to assess your energy needs.

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