There was a power surge and as a result, you now have blown fuses, no power, downtime, and stress…lots of stress.
At just the thought of that, you’re probably getting a little sweaty and nervous if you’re like the rest of our customers. While power surges and outages are not avoidable, it’s important to be prepared for the inevitable and ensure you have a team ready to drop everything to help you when you’re down.
For a recent customer of ours in Canton, MI, the above became their reality. Thankfully, we were as their partner every step of the way.
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With us, our customer’s world becomes our world, their problems become our problems, and we won’t stop until expectations are exceeded.
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So, what happened?
Monday’s power surge caused blown fuses on the DTE pole. Of course, DTE came out and swapped the transformers, but the problem didn’t end there. It’s Tuesday morning, and once power was restored, our customer came to realize only half their plant had power.
Cue: calling Serve Electric.
Our team ran over to discover a primary switch in the back with a blown fuse. Unfortunately, the primary switch had been neglected for at least 40 years. So neglected in fact that as the team turned the handle to open the door, the chain mechanism broke, preventing the door from opening. After communicating with the manufacturer, the team managed to break into it while staying safe.
Once opened, the team learned the primary switch was in such bad shape that it couldn’t even be turned off. A lost cause. After another DTE visit to turn off the power, and plenty of calling around to find a vendor to help in a short time, the team worked late into the night to install a 1 MW generator for temporary power.
Back Up and Running
In the end, our customer was running by third shift and elated we saved them from more downtime and lost money. Next steps are to get off the temporary power and hopefully replace the primary switch entirely.
Of course, the pain of an emergency service call is felt regardless of how quickly you’re back in action. Believe it or not, while we love the opportunity to serve our customers in an emergency, we would rather our customers never lose production time. That’s why we provide preventative maintenance services. With a small upfront investment, preventative maintenance provides deep peace of mind and prevents sudden costs and losses in the future.
