January 3, 2020
What's Your Plan for Planned Power Outages? Ken Golovko delves into the considerations in ENR article.
What is Your Plan for Planned Power Outages?
On Nov. 18, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) issued its 7th planned power outage notice this year. This outage affected more than 300,000 customers (almost 1,000,000 people) in PG&E’s Northern California service area.
While weather may calm as we head toward winter, we know there will be future outage events, which should drive facility teams to evaluate their preparation.
Our integrated architecture and engineering team at HED has been considering what these outages mean in the larger context of overall building operations and mission resiliency - you can read about some of our takeaways in National Engineering Leader Kenneth Golovko's recent article from Engineering News-Record: "What is Your Plan for Planned Power Outages?"
Some of these considerations include what types of questions facilities leadership should be asking, like:
- Is there any backup power available (generator, on-site solar etc.)?
- Have loads been added to the backup / emergency system versus design?
- Have emergency systems been maintained? e.g. Have the emergency batteries been tested and replaced?
- How much fuel is available for a generator?
- 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?
Kenneth Golovko, P.E., LEED AP BD+C is the National Engineering Practice Leader at integrated architecture and engineering firm 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. If you'd like to continue the conversation about Planned Power Outages, you can reach out to Ken using the link below.
On Nov. 18, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) issued its 7th planned power outage notice this year. This outage affected more than 300,000 customers (almost 1,000,000 people) in PG&E’s Northern California service area.
While weather may calm as we head toward winter, we know there will be future outage events, which should drive facility teams to evaluate their preparation.
Our integrated architecture and engineering team at HED has been considering what these outages mean in the larger context of overall building operations and mission resiliency - you can read about some of our takeaways in National Engineering Leader Kenneth Golovko's recent article from Engineering News-Record: "What is Your Plan for Planned Power Outages?"
Some of these considerations include what types of questions facilities leadership should be asking, like:
- Is there any backup power available (generator, on-site solar etc.)?
- Have loads been added to the backup / emergency system versus design?
- Have emergency systems been maintained? e.g. Have the emergency batteries been tested and replaced?
- How much fuel is available for a generator?
- 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?
Kenneth Golovko, P.E., LEED AP BD+C is the National Engineering Practice Leader at integrated architecture and engineering firm 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. If you'd like to continue the conversation about Planned Power Outages, you can reach out to Ken using the link below.
Contact Ken
See the Full Engineering News Record Piece