If the past couple of years have taught us anything, it’s that we can’t become reliant on the common saying business as usual. Significant factors that have impacted the way businesses operate, whether due to Covid-19 or natural disasters, has placed importance on investing in ways to keep businesses operational.

Minimising downtime, in times of extremes, has become a key focus of many businesses and we have found that there has been an uptake in organisations investing in emergency power generators so they can continue to operate when there’s interruptions to the main power supply.

How can a backup generator benefit your business?

This is a question that we often get asked and there are several reasons why you may choose to install a backup genset at your business premises. The most common benefits include:

• Preventing the loss of significant data, information, or research as well as the protection of customer data.
• Eliminating downtime during an outage and maintain productivity.
• Preserve the lines of communication allowing you to continue to serve and support customers during a power outage.
• Cost savings on business property.

However, the benefits your business will receive is dependent on the nature of your business. So, let’s look at a few practical examples to demonstrate how versatile a backup diesel generator can be.

Backup generators for factories

Steve is the Manager at the local beef exports. Most of the beef processed is exported overseas and there is continuously high demand. This means that Steve needs to operate the processing plant 24 hours a day to keep up with demand.

During the afternoon shift, approximately 8pm, Steve receives a call from the Shift Manager notifying him of a power outage on the mains grid. Production has stopped and the technicians estimate that the power will be restored in four hours.

Steve starts to panic. Four hours of downtime will mean that he won’t meet his production targets for export and the stock in the cool room will become non-viable for sale, resulting in a loss of $750,000.

After the initial panic, Steve starts to think clearly and calls the Facilities Manager to confirm if the standby diesel generator that was ordered had been installed. The Facilities Manager confirms that the generator has been installed but the Automatic Transfer Switch was on backorder so the generator would need to be manually started in the meantime.

The Facilities Manager calls the Shift Manager and instructs them how to turn on the generator. Steve then receives a call from the Shift Manager confirming that the generator is now powering the processing plant and the cool room. Total downtime equals 20 minutes.

This scenario demonstrates how critical a backup generator is to factories and manufacturing facilities, especially businesses that deal with perishable goods. Having a backup generator protects your business from any downtime caused by power failure and keeps you operational.

Backup generators for aged care facilities

Wendy is the Facilities Manager at the Golden Acres Nursing Home. There are currently 70 elderly people in residence, three of them are dependent on life-saving medical equipment.

It’s a 38°C day and the past four days have been over 35°C. Power is lost halfway through her shift. The new Registered Nurse in charge calls Wendy and informs her that the power is off and that she has three critical patients.

Fortunately, Golden Acres has an automated emergency power system within the nursing home and Wendy explains that the power will be back on within a couple of minutes.

In this scenario, the residents of Golden Acres were minimally impacted by the temporary loss of power. However, there is not a legal requirement for aged care facilities to have an emergency generator installed.

If the nursing home didn’t have a backup genset and only relied on mains power, there could be some very serious consequences from the power failure – either very sick patients with heat stroke or even the death of the three critical residents.

Backup generators for shopping centres

Graham runs a café in the local shopping centre. The café is busy with lunch patrons when the power cuts out for an hour.

During this prime time, Graham can’t input orders into his register, receive tap and go payments as or even make his diners coffee. He resorts back to the manual pen and paper method to try and continue to take orders and keep his customers happy.

As part of his agreement with the shopping centre, the emergency generator would provide power to the entire shopping centre, including Graham’s café, during an outage. When Graham enquires with Centre Management about why the generator didn’t work, he is told that it’s not working due to irregular servicing.

With many businesses within a shopping centre reliant on reliable power, it is crucial for shopping centre to be equipped with a reliable backup generator. However, as we can see in the scenario above, it is also paramount for the backup generator to be regularly serviced.

To guarantee reliability during an outage, a backup generator requires regular servicing and maintenance. This can include starting the genset to allow it to run, inspecting for leaks and spillages, testing the ATS and checking the fuel levels.

Backup generators from PowerLink

As a specialist manufacturer of backup generators, PowerLink is well equipped to provide you with a reliable and durable standby generator for your business.

With generators, ranging from 6kVA to 3,250kVA, PowerLink has an option for every type of business. To find out which PowerLink diesel generator would be most suitable for your business, please email us at info@powerlinkworld.com.au and we will direct you to your local PowerLink distributor.

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