What to do when the lights go out

Real Estate Weekly, July 14, 1999 by Lois Weiss

Last week's numerous power outages put managers on their toes and Mayor Rudy Giuliani on the warpath. Despite having his own Emergency Management Services people in the control room with Con Ed personnel, the Mayor charged Con Ed didn't notify the city the lights were going out, and was unprepared to deal with the city's electrical load. He's suing Con Edison, and encouraged everyone to do so, too.

That wasn't great news for Con Ed, which has been working with the Public Service Commission and State regulators to become strictly an electrical transmission company meaning it could forever face these kinds of issues.

Other affiliates, such as Con Ed Solutions, will act as Energy Service Companies (ESCOs), and either generate or resell electricity to customers that will be supplied via the Con Ed transmission lines.

Meanwhile, despite charges of picking on non-core areas, indeed it is the large commercial buildings that are often the first that help alleviate the drain on the city's electric system. Managers were in touch with Con Ed throughout the heat wave, turning off or using less power when asked.

"We voluntarily asked them to curtail services and we want to thank them for that, and thank all the area owners for their patience," said Con Ed spokesperson Mike Spall. "We realize we put them through a lot."

Anthony Lifrieri, director of operations for Insignia/ESG, was among those who responded to Con Ed's call. While office buildings here are designed for 85 degrees and 50 percent humidity, the more heat and humidity meant more cooling power was required, and that added to the drain.

If there is low humidity, building managers will bring in fresh air in the early mornings, but when it's humid, Lifrieri says the worst thing tenants can do is open the windows, because the dampness is harder to get out to cool off the building.

"We have emergency plans in each building, and if the lights go out, our managers and electricians know where to go," Lifrieri said.

They also have a plan in place which prioritizes load shedding. This involves turning off building items that decrease the load being used by the building. It could be turning off an unnecessary pump, cutting down on the number of elevators in use in each bank, or staggering start-up times for systems.

Because the heat wave began over the July 4th weekend, Lifrieri had workers come in late in the day on July 5th to start turning on the chillers.

The normal start-up time would be 4 a.m., but instead they started some between six and midnight the night before, "so they had a good 12 hours of running time before anyone occupied the buildings."

Sometimes his managers get a call from Con Ed asking them to cut back, sometimes it's a fax letting them know Con Ed will cut back power by 5 to 8 percent.

"That's important for us to know," Lifrieri said, "because with the smart buildings, the equipment is a lot more sensitive."

For instance, he explained, the elevator's solid state drives known as (SCR's) are more sensitive than the older equipment. "At five percent we're okay, but if they cut it back more, then you can have problems, including operational and door problems," he said.

Sometimes the computer systems will be affected.

Con Ed also calls to see if owners have emergency generator back-ups on hand and ask if the building can be switched over.

"It's preventative measures," said Lifrieri. "It helps out the utility. But if Con Ed says 'We need your building off-line,' we only have a few minutes to turn the generators on."

All public announcement systems in the large buildings are supposed to be on emergency back-up systems, and if the lights go out, announcements would be made to help people out of the building. "Normally, people just stay put," said Lifrieri of times when lights go out during the day.

He oversees the generator back-ups for all the life safety systems, elevators, and stairwell lighting, but noted air conditioning might not work. "We have generators we oversee for tenants, and there are a number that would come on-line to support all that computer equipment for the tenants," he said of certain sites.

There might be a back-up system within the tenant's own data center, or a shared building generator can provide for part of a floor where the tenant needs back-up air conditioning for the computers or critical systems. "It's not designed, even on the headquarters side, to run the whole entire building," he said. "We sell them so much per kilowatt. Then they share the cost of the operation."

Usually, buildings set up to provide greater back-up power are special headquarters or government buildings. "You don't normally plan to run a building on a generator unless it's a data center or a government building running in a crisis," he explained. "It's super expensive to install and then we have to run them once a month, and once a month we have Con Ed shut all the power down and watch how it transfers over. There are a lot of dollars involved in maintaining this equipment, and unless you are trying to find a critical niche [when you develop a new building], you won't provide back-up power to run the entire building."