PROTECTION DURING OUTAGES Small businesses turn to power backup

Only 40 percent of the nation's 23 million small businesses have emergency power.
MAPLE HEIGHTS, Ohio (AP) -- Marcus Robinson didn't want to see thousands of his fish go belly up a second time.
The owner of M & amp;M Aquarium in suburban Cleveland knew after last summer's blackout that he needed a backup power source to protect his investment.
Robinson is among a growing number of small-business owners who are investing in backup power to keep everything from computer servers to aquarium pumps operating if the utility companies falter.
Although the Aug. 14 blackout that left 50 million people without electricity served as a catalyst, small businesses need backup power for more than just prolonged outages.
"The power that is offered through the utility grid is only 99.9 percent reliable, which means during the year you have nine hours of down time in any form," said Farah Saeed, who studies power supply solutions for the San Antonio-based market research firm Frost & amp; Sullivan. "Down time could last five seconds or so but would have an immense effect on your equipment."
Robinson lost 2,500 goldfish and many pricey saltwater and tropical fish during the August blackout. His losses totaled $8,000 in fish and $2,000 in damaged aquarium pumps.
Two months after the outage, he bought a gas-powered portable Honda generator for $3,000.
"If I'd had it, I wouldn't have lost those fish," Robinson said.
What's changed
Backup power technologies were depressed after the dot-com crash in 2000, but now hotels, retailers and other mom and pop stores are investing in generators, Saeed said. She doesn't expect the trend to fade anytime soon.
"More and more small organizations across the board are relying on stored data," she said.
St. Louis-based Emerson Electric Co. estimates that 60 percent of the nation's 23 million small businesses still have no backup power supply.
Many large companies already have backup supplies, but Emerson is now seeing increased interest from small businesses, president Jim Berges said.
"You're so used to having electricity that you don't even think of all the little things," Berges said. "Think of all those hotels who had to put people out on the streets."
Emerson specializes in technologies such as power transfer switches, which detect a utility outage and start a backup generator, then shut the generator down when the utility's power resumes.
It also makes uninterruptible power supplies, which shift small businesses to battery power during an outage. Uninterruptible power supplies can protect against sags or surges that can damage electronic equipment or cause computer shutdowns.
Berges said backup power can be used as a competitive marketing tool, especially by small businesses that are hired by larger businesses who can't afford to have them go down.
Success story
Cleveland Heights grocer John Zagara invested in backup power in June 2002 because his utility service had been spotty. It made him a local hero during last summer's blackout and earned him some new customers.
When the lights went out all over the Northeast, the ones at Zagara's Marketplace stayed on and the store was able to salvage items that others lost, such as meat, ice cream and other frozen foods.
He estimates he has spent under $100,000 on his natural gas diesel engine with a power transfer switch since it was installed. He said it saved him $30,000 to $40,000 in inventory during the August blackout.
There were intangible profits as well.
"You can never really quantify the satisfaction your customers have when there's an emergency situation and they can rely on their local grocer to provide the services they need," Zagara said.