Warehouse Safety By Design Pt. 3: Energy and Risk Considerations

Greetings folks and thanks for taking time with us today on Mighty Line Minute! We're continuing our series on Safety Due Diligence in Warehousing. Today we're going to talk a bit about utilities, safety, and what you need to consider when you're siting a warehouse. 

It was Martin Luther King Jr. who said, "Faith is taking the first step, even when you can't see the whole staircase." In the first of our series, we talked about due diligence and all aspects of that. And, in other words, the steps that you need to take to look at the entire staircase. 

We are now into the next of the series that deals with, specifically, utilities. Energy is often what first comes to mind, so let's talk about that. First questions might be, "Who are these energy suppliers and just how reliable are they?" For electrical supply, it's critical to understand your present and future energy needs. That means developing a clear understanding of all building and energy demands.

That includes any standby or backup power needs. You'll want to do that by identifying the source and type of power that is available to the site. That means identifying the quality, the reliability of the electrical supply, including any power fluctuations, voltage drops or spikes, as well as historical frequencies of outages.

It's also very useful to identify whether or not dual or redundant power feeds to the site are available. That would allow increased reliability and continuity of power if one feed or substation failed. It's critical to identify costs associated with bringing in new power to the facility, as well as who is responsible.

In determining the effects of weather, it's important to really understand the risks associated with power loss that could relate to weather conditions, storms, snow, high winds, flooding, or fire. 

One critical area of building and operations review involves, on the HVAC side, a complete understanding of building ventilation, the design, the demand, and the number of air changes that are required for the facility.

For example, there may be special ventilation requirements for hazardous materials, or for pressurized stairwells, elevators, life safety issues such as those. And what about future expansion for HVAC volumes that may need to be considered?

And there's the issue of comfort for employees. That could include the delivery of cool, night air via roof fans, or designing roof fans for smoke evacuation in the event of fire.

There is also the consideration for alternative energy, particularly if LEED green building designs are sought, while more common supplies such as natural gas or LPG may be considered. You may be exploring energy options delivered by wind, solar, hydrogen fuel cells, natural or LP gas turbines, or combined heat and power systems, known as "CHP."

Our final item today is water supplies. For example, it's critical to evaluate water required for operational processes, production, filling, and or cooling, and the adequacy of available water supplies, specifically, how the municipal or regional water supply is stored and delivered: volumes, pressures, water line sizes, piping, what's in place as far as infrastructure, or what's intended to be in place, and how soon. And the adequacy of backup water supplies in the event of failures.

There's also the issue of the reliability of regional pumps used to supply water and whether those pumps are provided with emergency backup. 

As we also have recently witnessed, there are extreme impacts that can be caused by unusual fire conditions such as wildland fires, or exposures that are unique. 

So whether it's seismic, wind, fire, flood, or any other natural disaster exposure, we need to pay particular attention to those risks because they can be extremely impactful, not just on the operation, but on the entire business. That's a critical area to understand and study, prior to choosing the site for the industrial warehouse.

These represent only several of the questions I have found myself asking during large-scale projects, surprised at the high degree of knowledge that engineers, architects, city and regional or state officials provided. But there were other times, especially when local utility maps were not updated, or the size, location, and the reliability of water mains was unclear; or, the power grid was intermittent, or the location of historic gas lines and wells were unknown. In those cases, I would have great, great pause on the project.

So, in concluding this segment, utilities are a critical area of design that you will need to pay close attention to during due diligence. And from there, we go forward. The next series will be talking more about fire protection, property loss control, and safety design considerations that go a step beyond what you might be looking for normally in a project.

Thanks folks for taking time with us today on Mighty Line Minute. We appreciate your time and especially, your efforts to take a look at MightyLineTape.com to see what we can do to help you, in your areas of operational excellence, safety, and delineation within the workspace. Take care. We'll see you next time.