Fuel cells could raise outage management efforts
April 15, 2013 | By
Barbara Vergetis Lundin
Outages caused by storms and other natural disasters cost an average of $150 billion in economic losses each year. As a result, a variety of businesses from telecommunications companies and banks to hospitals and data centers are looking to fuel cells as a reliable source of backup power, according to research from Fuel Cells 2000. "While diesel generators have frequently failed in disaster situations -- at New Orleans hospitals after Hurricane Katrina, for example -- the high reliability and flexibility of fuel-cell systems makes them extremely well suited to backup power generation," said Jennifer Gangi, program director of Fuel Cells 2000. "Fuel cell backup systems are already providing businesses with savings from lower maintenance costs and less frequent downtime, as well as the comfort of knowing that critical systems will remain online during disasters." Customers with mission-critical facilities rely on uninterrupted supplies of electricity. Fuel cells operate independent of the power grid, ensuring a continuous supply of electricity and a higher level of reliability than diesel generators, which are more susceptible to mechanical failures, according to Fuel Cells 2000. For more: © 2013 FierceMarkets. All rights reserved. http://www.fierceenergy.com http://www.fierceenergy.com/story/fuel-cells-could-raise-outage-management-efforts/ |