You could hear them then: standby gen-set system kept Verizon's wireless customers in touch during East Coast blackout

Diesel Progress North American Edition, August, 2004

Over the last several years, telecommunications has become one of the hot markets for power generation. The reason why was illustrated during the great Northeast blackout that took place a year ago this month. In an area that stretched from the Great Lakes region to the Atlantic shore, more than 50 million people were affected, as the outage shut down communications and transportation systems.

A common sight ill televised media coverage was long lines at public telephones. Traditional "land line" telephones still worked because that system was backed up with batteries and standby generator systems. But many cell phones stopped working when some wireless service providers lost power at their cell antenna sites. Wireless companies that made the investment in standby power systems avoided the consequences during the blackout.

An example was Verizon Wireless serving upstate New York, which continued to operate normally throughout the outage. It's familiar commercial slogan--"Can you hear me now?"--proved amazingly prescient for its customers during the blackout. Prior to the blackout, upwards of 300 of the company's call antenna sites throughout upstate New York had been equipped with onsite standby power systems from Cummins Power Generation.

"The outage had no impact whatsoever on service to our customers," said Rick Polatas, director of network services for Verizon Wireless. "Every Cummins generator at our remote cell sites and switching stations started and ran perfectly."

Verizon began installing standby power systems from Cummins Power Generation three years ago. Each of the company's remote cell sites centered mound Syracuse, Buffalo and Rochester, N.Y., is backed up with a 40 kW diesel generator. The company also installed a 500 kW or 750 kW Cummins standby gen-set at each of its regional switching facilities. These also operated flawlessly during the outage, Verizon said.

"Verizon Wireless was one of the leading cell phone providers in the telecommunications industry to make this kind of an investment in power reliability," said Dan Bush, a Cummins sales engineer in Rochester, N.Y. "However, businesses of all kinds are learning that without sufficient backup generation, power outages pose big financial risks.

"In the case of Verizon Wireless, if their customers' cell phones weren't working, the company wouldn't be generating any income while continuing to incur costs and creating unhappy customers."

Each Verizon Wireless remote cell antenna site consists of telecommunications gear minting on utility power. To make sure that even short outages don't disrupt cell phone service, each site is backed up with a bank of batteries to power the gear for 8 to 10 hours. However, it is normal for the Cummins 40 kW diesel generator to start and assume full load within 10 to 15 seconds after utility power is lost. The newest 40 kW gen-sets are equipped with new PowerCommand 2100 digital controllers that are designed to provide more precise voltage regulation, better engine combustion efficiency, remote and local networking capabilities and real-time information.

Coupled with the generator set is an automatic transfer switch that senses the loss of utility power, signals the generator to start and then opens the breaker to the utility connection and closes the connection to the generator. When utility power returns, the transfer switch restores normal power to the cell site and then shuts down the generator.

Bush said that each Verizon Wireless cell site has above-ground storage for about 250 gal. of diesel fuel. Based on average fuel consumption estimates, this is enough fuel for an outage of 80 hours or a little over three days. Many of the sites had to run for up to five days during the blackout and required refueling.

All the Verizon units were covered by a standard Cummins maintenance agreement that consists of an inspection every six months, a yearly fluid and filter replacement, and topping off the fuel tank.

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