President’s Report
It’s a known fact, time does not stand still, but just about everyone I talk to anymore it seems time is speeding up. Maybe it’s our age or that we are all that busy, probably a combination of both, but it’s hard to believe our first program of the year has come and gone. 2013 was a great year even thought we had wet weather at just about all our programs we still had very good turnouts. We really had fun at this year’s Fall Social making the entire evening fun and entertaining as well as handing out appreciation awards to our sponsors.
On March 11th we held our Spring program which included discussions and learning more about the effects lightning has on us and our buildings as well as Arc Flash and the latest from OSHA and NFPA 70E regarding Arc Flash and ,more.
We are continuing to grow and change our website so our membership can get the most out of it. Have you ever stopped and looked back just a few years or even scarier yet a decade? Oh how did we all function without the devices we have today? We saw last year in Boulder on our tour how technology is changing the way data centers can be built and function. What an exciting day and age we live in especially if you’re a techno nut.
Once again our home for 2014 will be the Denver West Sheraton, however our Summer program on June 3rd will be at FORTRUST for a tour. Registration is open on the website.
PROGRAMS
EVENT RECAP:
On March 11, 2014 – Lightning Safety and Arc Flash Anaylsis – Recap
They say that lightning never strikes the same place twice. Well during this session 60 attendess saw and heard about many lightning strikes all under the same roof. There goes that theory.
Max Billington (RMH) gave us a fascinating presentation regarding the science lightning, safety principles, and how to prepare your facility for a lighting strike. The presentation was highlighted by a video clip of a soccer (football if your are English) match that was interupted by a lighting strike. The frame by frame analysis provided the dangers of how positive charges and negative charges can create a stroke of lightning that can be a hazard to one’s health.
The program ended with some safety practices along with options for facility protection which includes but are not limited to; early stream emission systems, dissipater array systems, and the Franklin rod systems.
The second session of the morning started with a BOOM! Not literally but it was evident where the next presenter was going to be informing us about. An Arc Flash is nothing more than an electrical explosion. The presentation was given by Russ Strickler (Electrical Engineer, Enabled Energy, Inc). Mr. Strickler provided a number of historical facts regarding electrical explosions and discussed the major implications one can have on a facility.
It was preety astounding the amount of fines that can be introduced if an incident occurs to organizations who have not completed an Arc Flash Analysis. “It’s more than just labeling the equipment,” Russ explained. Each Arc Flash Analysis requires a short circuit analysis of the facility from the tranformer in, and a breaker coordination study. It is only then can a “True” Arc Flash Analysis be complete. Facilities benefit from this practice to keep their data centers working properly and most efficiently.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
June 3, 2014 – FORTRUST Tour –The Most Likely Causes of Data Center Outages and Most Proven Strategies for Prevention.
A data center’s mission should be to create reliability, mitigate risk, and provide uptime for the technology and applications that it enables. Reliability or uptime stems from a combination of many factors. At the end of the day, the measuring stick for a data center is the number of unplanned downtime events and the track record of continuous uptime it has delivered.
The key to preventing unplanned outages or downtime in the critical systems infrastructure, specifically, the Electrical and Mechanical (cooling) systems that support the IT equipment and telecommunication areas in a data center, is to focus the greatest amount of attention and effort on the most likely causes of outages. We will examine the most likely causes of data center outages and some proven strategies to prevent them.
Save the Date – September 9, 2014 – Fall Program
WELCOME NEW MEMBERS
Welcome New Members/Sponsors:
Integrity Electrical Solutions, Member & Silver Sponsor
Tolin Mechanical, Member & Silver Sponsor
Teletech
Pioneer Power Solutions
SCL Health System
ASCO Power Technologies