Standby-power contract called into effect twice in one month

A contract for Powercall UK to provide standby power within the hour for East Cambridgeshire District Council came into effect twice in January with two power cuts — one lasting over 18 hours. Powercall ensured that a standby generator was connected and power supplied within the hour and also kept the generator’s fuel topped up during the prolonged power outages. The council had installed new UPS and server equipment as part of its business-continuity programme required under the Civil Contingencies Act of 2004. The contract with Powercall was to ensure electricity continued to be available if a power cut lasted more than four hours. Robin Dunn, who is responsible for asset management and emergency planning with the council, explains, ‘Under the Civil Contingency Act 2004, councils need to ensure that volatile data is not lost in the event of a power cut. The contingency planning we had put in place to ensure power to essential services in the event of a long power cut exceeded all our expectations, enabling the public interface to remain up and running’ Powercall’s nationwide generator network is serviced by a continuously manned control room which despatches a generator from a local depot with a target time of less than an hour and a guaranteed commitment to a maximum of three hours. When the generator is connected, the customer is told to switch over to it. An indicator lamp on the changeover switch indicates when mains power has been restored.