Experiencing the Bomb Cyclone: Lessons from the Pacific Northwest Power Outage

Recently, a bomb cyclone swept through the Pacific Northwest, leaving half a million people without power for days (some are still without power almost a week later). As an IoT advisor working from home, this experience was quite a wake-up call. Here are some thoughts and lessons learned from my three days in the dark.

The importance of Internet connectivity ??

We often take internet connectivity for granted, both for work and personal use. During previous power outages, I relied on cellular data and my laptop's long battery life to stay connected. I could access emails, work documents, and collaboration platforms like Notion, Loop, Teams, Slack, and Google Drive without a hitch. However, this time, the extent of the storm's damage knocked out cellular data as well.

Lessons learned:

• For work: Do not rely solely on cloud storage. Always have a locally synced copy of all work-in-progress documents.
• On the personal front: being disconnected from the internet brought the family together (we have 2 teens and a young adult. We played board games and had a blast reconnecting without the distractions of our portable devices. Being connected to the world is great, but sometimes it disconnects you from the people right next to you.

Is an electrical switch the only and best solution? ??

While I strongly advocate for reducing fossil fuel usage, our natural gas fireplace and stovetop were lifesavers. Losing light or internet for several days is manageable, but cooking and heating are basic needs. You can't stay in a place with no way to prepare meals or keep warm. I was also thankful that our fireplace is equipped with a thermocouple, allowing us to control the gas valve without electricity. For the stovetop, a lighter did the trick to turn the fire on.

Lesson learned: Working in IoT, I see many opportunities to control things using electronics. However, we must always consider the possibility of losing our main power source and have a plan to not loose control over critical systems. In IoT solutions, this means ensuring actuators, valves, and relays controlling critical parts of a system have a manual override or can operate without main power, perhaps using a backup battery or non-electrical mechanisms like the thermocouple or valves with an in-pipe turbines.

The Role of Backup Power Solutions ????

I managed to hook up our fridge and freezer to our EV's battery. Kia EV6 comes with an adapter that turns the charging plug into a wall outlet, which allowed us to save our food.

Lesson learned: this experience highlighted the potential of having a backup battery for the home, which could be a worthwhile investment in the long run. The same goes for IoT solutions. If not operating solely on a battery, your system might benefit from a backup one in case it loses power. Here are some examples of devices that can benefit from a backup battery in case of a loss of power: fire and smoke detectors, refrigerated container, asset tracker.

To me, this power outage underscored the importance of preparedness and adaptability, not just in our personal lives but more broadly in the IoT field. Moving forward, I will keep these lessons in mind and strive to create solutions that are resilient and reliable, no matter what Mother Nature throws their way.