During the record winter storm that left Texas in a statewide power emergency, we used our generators to keep customers online and reduce the load on the state’s struggling power grid.
On Saturday morning February 13th, we began to implement our disaster response protocol for the winter storm. We implemented a “ride-through” team at the facility, to remain on-site during the storm. Our team performed extended runtime tests on generators, topped off fuel, and prepared an on-site reserve fuel tanker ready to provide fuel if needed.
On Sunday, February 14th, we transitioned to generator power in anticipation for the storm. We continued to operate on generators until Friday, Feb 19th.
“This was a unique outage in that the generation capacity of Texas was limited,” says Chris Hinkle, Chief Technology Officer. “Because of Texas’ generation capacity issue, we felt it best to protect our clients and stay off the grid for an extended period of time, even though utility was available for most of the week. Every one-kilowatt we could take off the grid was one-kilowatt to power people’s homes, and we were happy to do that for our community.”
“We were able to maintain a business-as-usual experience for our clients while they were stuck in their homes, possibly without power for days on end,” says Hinkle. “This really gets to the core of why people utilize colocation facilities: to have a 3rd man watching the fort while they can’t be there.”
Clients and members of the community reached out to thank us as they elected to operate on generators through the duration of the EEA3: Rolling Outages classification of ERCOT. “We knew what the stakes were and that we had to stay online with hospitals and mission-critical facilities relying on our services,” Hinkle says. “But beyond that, we provide services for grid operators such as Enchanted Rock, who were able to keep grocery stores throughout Texas online and get people fed. Our ability to say that we got to help keep people fed and receiving healthcare gets to the core of why we do what we do.”
We have become the highest rated and most reviewed data center in Houston within just two years of opening. Our unique Colo+ service offers fully managed colocation that includes unlimited remote hands on, physical migrations, and world-best cabling and labeling.
