Hugh O’Kane ELECTRIC COMPANY, INC.

Data centers provide power to more than just servers equipped to handle file storage, data management, backup and recovery. In today’s hyper-productive world a data center, in essence, is the lifeline of an enterprise. This nerve center is designed to support business transactions and provide external and internal services such as e-commerce transactions, email hosting, big data/artificial intelligence, and online gaming to name a few. What are the critical power usage strategies needed to run an efficient data center? As one can imagine, a great amount of power is needed to support these centers in order to ensure uninterrupted service. In fact, the power infrastructure for most data centers must be designed to not only accommodate the servers running the transactions, but also the physical structure itself. Air handlers/cooling/ventilation systems, lighting, environmental controls, fire systems, security, surveillance, and sensors all require a substantial amount of power. Emergency ...

How disruptive is it when your power goes out? What does that do to your day? Now, imagine how arresting it is for enterprises, multinational corporations, distribution centers (that Amazon package is not arriving today), banks, hospitals—you name it. There are thousands of business and critical service environments that require 24/7 uninterrupted power. Nearly a year ago, the devastating power outages in at least 14 different U.S. states , where power was lost during the winter storms that swept through the country last February is an indictment of the escalating need for critical power systems. During those storms, more than 5 million customers dealt with rolling blackouts that lasted several days. This month, Texas almost had revisionist history of the turmoil it suffered last February when it lost nearly 1.3 gigawatts of electrical generation—equating to about 1.5% of its winter capacity—when plunging winter temperatures hit the state at the start of January. According to Bloombe...

Power cogeneration, or combined heat and power (CHP), is not only a smart choice for the environment, but it’s also great for the bottom line. It produces electricity and thermal energy on-site, replacing or supplementing electricity provided from the local utility, significantly improving energy efficiency. Incorporating commercially available technology, CHP can provide an immediate solution to pressing energy problems. Cogeneration solutions represent a proven and effective near-term energy option to help enhance energy efficiency, ensure environmental quality, promote economic growth, and foster a robust, long-term and resilient energy infrastructure. In 2020, energy production in the United States fell to just below 96 quadrillion British thermal units, down more than 5% from 2019’s record high, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration . In fact, cogeneration is one of the few options in energy alternatives that combines environmental effectiveness with economic...