The hottest days of summer will soon be here. With those days come peak air conditioner use and a strain on the grid. In addition to voltage sags, a power outage is always a threat. However, a power outage doesn't mean that the lights simply go off. For example, you may have processes (e.g., extrusion, metal potting) that cause huge problems if there's an unplanned interruption.
It's interesting that process shutdown is usually the job of operations, but if they don't do it right, then maintenance owns the problems. So talk with operations people about what can be done to prevent problems. This can include installing dump valves, providing a battery backup, or updating operator procedures and training.
In Part 2, we'll look at other voltage sag and power loss effects.
