This morning, I received notification from my custodian that the power was out in our facility. In this instance, I make it a point to shut off the electrical breakers to all of my high power equipment, which is mostly the air conditioners. We have 30 rooftop units and 3 mini splits. I don't want them all suddenly drawing power at the same time. I would rather have a slow and controlled power up.
I drove in early to shut off the RTUs. I leave the lighting powered up as we have mostly LED lights. Arriving on site, I noticed that the emergency lighting was already dimming. This indicates that the power had been out for at least an hour or more.
Our IT backup batteries were also drained on three racks with the most electronics. The other three were still operational, although they don't support much equipment.
Once power was restored, I started turning on breakers about one per minute. As you can imagine, this would take about 30 minutes. I gave priority to the public spaces that would see immediate usage. Then, I worked my way to the less occupied spaces.
We are now completely powered up.
In the interest of occupant safety, I have decided to take classes and become certified in active shooter procedures. The ultimate goal is to have shooter drills in the same way we would have fire drills. The aim is to have our building occupants be aware of what their options are in the event there is an armed intruder. Afterwards, we could have a discussion about what worked and what did not work in their response to the shooter simulation.
