Exploring communications for real-time network visibility

BY DONALD POLLOCK, Ambient Corporation

In August 2013, a report entitled “Economic Benefits of Increasing Electric Grid Resilience to Weather Outages” prepared by the White House Council of Economic Advisors and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) identified severe weather as the leading cause of non-planned power outages in the United States.

Other causes include operational failures, equipment malfunctions, circuit overloads, and load shedding to name a few. Even short duration outages or power quality events caused by voltage or current abnormalities can affect electronic equipment and cause economic loss to customers with highly sensitive loads. A study entitled “Cost of Power Interruptions to Electricity Consumers in the United States” published in 2005 estimated the total cost of all power outages to consumers in the United States to range from $28 to $169 billion.