Over the last 2 years a lot of time, money and effort have been put into rolling out generators to provide network coverage for the Firelink/GBNR project.

On the 2nd July 2009 the results of these efforts could clearly be seen when as a result of the extreme weather, the Harrington telemetry system recorded a total of 187 mains power outages around the system within a 24hr period.

To put this in context, it is expected that a total of 10 to 20 mains power outages will occur throughout the network in a normal 24hr period.

Many sites experienced multiple short failures of power before a prolonged outage.

In each and every instance the Harrington generator started and ran flawlessly for the required period.

At one point over 40 Harrington generators were running simultaneously to support the emergency services radio network.

Without this generator cover in place, engineers would have had to be despatched to site   with temporary units to maintain the network resilience. This would have proved both costly and time consuming and could have led to areas without any radio coverage for extended periods of time.

Days like these just go to prove that the last two years of work have provided a measurable network improvement and peace of mind for the personnel on the ground.

Author: BK - 7th July 09