He explained the comparison to the health care industry by saying that while hospitals’ demands for stand-by power have continued to increase over the years, the need went to a whole new level when Hurricane Irma hit Florida last September. Previously, Watson said, sufficient power during a storm might simply have been enough to make sure a certain number of safety lights remained on and, if the building had elevators, make sure the elevators operated.

 

However, Watson pointed to an incident that happened during last year’s storm that may have raised the bar. "There was a nursing home/rehabilitation center in Hollywood that lost power, and a number of people passed away in the facility. I’m sure there were different causes, but a lot of it seems to have been linked to the loss of power. Changes were made to the regulations, so you kind of presume that those changes were made because of something that was revealed in the investigation. And you can trace a lot of it back to the loss of power – to make sure those types of facilities had the capability to provide an increased amount of their own stand-by power for an increased amount of time."

 

Now, Watson said, rather than just having enough power for emergency lighting, a facility basically needs enough to be able to run the whole operation as it normally does, including with air conditioning. Unfortunately, hurricane season in South Florida occurs at the hottest time of the year. "If you lose power and don’t have air conditioning, it’s one thing for healthy people to say, ‘Oh it’s a little hot but we can fan ourselves or we can go outside.’ But if you’re bed-ridden or you’re elderly or your health is already compromised, that lack of air conditioning can lead to more medical problems."

 

However, Watson was quick to emphasize, "This is not my area of expertise, and I try to stay away from telling customers what their obligations are, because everybody falls into a different category. What’s important is that they know what their obligations are, and then I can help them meet those requirements. When they say ‘I need this amount of fuel or I need fuel for this amount of time,’ then we can design and install those systems for them."

 

GPS is able to meet the needs of clients of all sizes. "We’ve done work for everything from the single facility to large hospital groups, for nursing home groups that own multiple facilities. We’ve even done work for health care provider clinics. In today’s world, especially in a health care facility, a lot of things are temperature controlled, whether it’s medications that must be refrigerated, or just a temperature-controlled issue with humidity in the room." He said having backup generators has become critical even though it’s not always a life-safety issue. In a doctor’s office, for example, it’s not life or death if the power goes out, but a lot of damage could be done to medicines or electronic records or physical records. "People have just found it to be to their benefit to have a backup system."

 

Because of such issues, GPS has been busy since Hurricane Irma, but Watson has been able to handle the additional work, having already done four installations, and having worked with other facilities that have been looking into doing some upgrading. He said the important thing to remember is that there is a lead time, because all fuel tanks – based on the needs and preferences of the customer – are built to order. "You don’t go into Home Depot and get one off the shelf. The time between when you place the order and when that tank will be ready for delivery can run eight to 12 weeks, depending on the size of the tank. So even if you have the most ambitious of goals to get something done, it can only be done so fast. I think the goal is to get everybody pro-active and have them get started."