Not only have rolling blackouts continued to affect business operations and households all over SA, but surges or spikes can happen at any time due to a number of causes.
This is according to APC by Schneider Electric, which cites some of these as being lightning strikes, the on-rush of current following an outage, or even the presence of high-powered electrical motors such as air-conditioners or other household appliances.
According to the company, these power fluctuations can cause permanent damage to expensive and sensitive electronic equipment, and often result in equipment downtime, lost productivity and lost data.
The company offers some tips to assist to minimise damage caused by load-shedding:
1 Protect crucial electronics from harmful high voltage, caused by power fluctuations (surges or spikes), by selecting surge protectors with low-let-through voltage ratings.
2 Ensure the safety of electronic equipment by selecting a surge protector that protects all available surge paths, including electrical cords, telephone cords, data lines and coaxial cables.
3 Determine which devices would benefit from continued operation in the event of a power outage and support that equipment with an uninterruptible power supply (UPS).
4 Select a UPS model with the option to add extra battery units to increase the runtime of critical devices.
5 Use power management software to monitor the quality of power that equipment is receiving and set up the ability to automatically and gracefully shut down the system and applications running when a power failure occurs.
6 Protect and manage structured wiring and networking applications with a UPS that enables remote management of automation functions and ensures protection in the event of a power outage.
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