Congress may enact legislation intended to provide a “fix” for the electrical grid. But it is clear the private sector can implement more effective solutions long before the government does.

While all mission-critical facilities have backup capabilities, the prolonged power failure demonstrated to many the inadequacy of their emergency power planning. The growing trend today is for companies to seek some degree of energy autonomy by implementing solutions that provide a “continuum of independence” from outside forces.

A range of options now exist.

Standby Power Systems — Standby power systems provide the most basic “life safety” features required by code, including emergency lighting and fire pumps. They “sense” loss of utility power and activate a diesel engine generator to assume critical loads.

Unfortunately, many mission-critical facilities discovered the limitations of such systems during the blackout. Without significant upsizing and an adequate supply of diesel fuel, these systems cannot maintain operations during a prolonged outage.

The upside is that recent advances in standby power technology has reduced installation costs and created smaller units. An added benefit is the issue of power quality. Standby systems can detect voltage irregularities and power surges, kicking in automatically to protect critical systems.

Cogeneration — Cogeneration uses commercially proven technologies to produce electricity and heat from a single fuel source. These facilities have improved dramatically in unit sizes to allow a smaller footprint; in efficiency, using less fuel to produce more energy; in emissions, resulting in lower nitrogen oxide; and in the price of the units.

Steam Turbine Generators — A steam turbine generator accepts superheated or saturated steam that powers turbine blades to generate electricity or drive a process, such as a pump, blower or compressor. Any operation that has a boiler plant for process heating can use that capacity to drive a turbine. The investment in steam turbine equipment can be relatively modest for a power-producing capability that can be used as part of normal operations or in an emergency situation.

Waste-to-Energy — Waste-to-energy conversion incinerates waste products from manufacturing facilities and uses the resulting heat to produce steam or hot water that can then be used for heating or for generating electricity. This approach offers particularly attractive economic advantages, given a situation where a facility generates waste products, or is in proximity to a landfill to make use of methane gas.

Fuel Cells — Fuel cells, which convert hydrogen to electricity, are now being tested in settings that will demonstrate whether the technology is cost-effective for large buildings where power quality and reliability are imperative.

Although the North American power grid may be the best in the world, energy consumers have no control over its regulation and operation. In this climate of uncertainty over the reliability of the utility system, it is imperative that businesses and re-evaluate their ability to cope with power outages and fluctuations.

Improving technologies offer companies a greater incentive than ever to move toward independence by taking control of their own power supply.

—Gene Martin is executive vice president of EMCOR Energy & Technologies, a Norwalk, Conn.,-based company specializing in the installation and maintenance of mechanical, electrical, plumbing, communications and other systems. Martin can be reached at gmartin@emcor.net, and the company can be accessed via the Web at www.emcorenergy.com.