Power outages have been one of the many concerns in the US today. Eaton, a power management company, has recently released the Blackout Tracker: United States Annual Report 2018, where they have thoroughly discussed the alarming impacts of blackout in different industries. It cited the major outages that have caused havoc to both commercial and residential customers. By knowing all this information, everyone can prepare themselves, specifically the government and industries, to strengthen their disaster preparedness plans.
The report is based on the reported power outages in the US. Their data sources include news services, newspapers, personal accounts and credible websites (newspapers and TV stations). The collated data have become their basis in the discussion.
According to the report, the US is not prepared for a major catastrophic event. When that incident comes, a large section of the country can suffer without power for months, or even years. Uptime Institute has released an assessment in 2018 which highlighted how data centers are effectively managing the power better today. However, based on the Global Data Center Survey, power usage effectiveness (PUE) reached its lowest score at 1.58.
The report has also mentioned how hackers have been giving IT professionals sleepless nights due to the increasing number of cyberattacks. Numerous crimes from different countries have caused power outages across the country and business owners believe that these are inevitable. Additionally, apart from these, the report has also disclosed how smart appliances are being used by hackers. These can be looped into a botnet, resulting in increased electrical demand, which could blow up massive cascading blackouts.
Eaton’s Blackout Tracker has reiterated the need for the US government to increase its smart grid investments to decrease the outage restoration time. The effort will also ensure that the country is equipped with the necessary solutions in case of mishaps.
To read the entire Eaton report, you can download the file here:
http://electricalsector.eaton.com/forms/BlackoutTrackerAnnualReport