Episode 30

Beyond Blackouts: How Power Quality Breaks Building Tech

May 4, 2026

Key takeaways

Power quality problems can disrupt building technology even when there is no visible blackout.
Voltage sags, harmonics, transients, poor grounding, and aging UPS systems are common causes of recurring incidents.
Facilities teams should correlate UPS logs, BAS data, and tenant incident timestamps before replacing equipment.
Temporary logging, infrared scans, and basic load checks can reveal root causes without invasive work.
The right fix depends on frequency, tenant impact, and whether an operational change or targeted electrical repair can solve the issue.

Watch on YouTube Is Your Business Exposed?

Show Notes

Why this episode matters

Power problems in commercial buildings are often misunderstood because teams are trained to watch for obvious outages. In this episode of Built, Wired, and Secured, Alex Morgan and Michael Harrington focus on the quieter failures that never look like a blackout but still create repeated tenant disruption. The lights may stay on, the generator may pass its test, and the UPS may show a healthy status, yet phones, VoIP gateways, network switches, and control systems can still reboot, throw intermittent errors, or behave unpredictably.

The conversation starts with a practical scenario: a law firm on the 12th floor experiences repeated phone and gateway reboots even though there is no visible outage. That example sets up the core lesson of the episode: modern building technology is vulnerable not just to loss of power, but to poor power quality.

Power quality vs. blackout

One of the clearest distinctions in the episode is the difference between a full blackout and a power quality issue.

A blackout is binary: power is lost, services go down, and backup systems are expected to take over.
Power quality problems are subtler: voltage sags, transient spikes, and harmonics may only last a few cycles, but that can be enough to trip sensitive electronics.
Modern networking gear, control platforms, and tenant technology stacks are less tolerant of these disturbances than many legacy systems.
Even when tenants never see a visible outage, they still feel the impact through reboots, data errors, unstable phones, and recurring service tickets.

The takeaway is operationally important: if teams only plan around total loss of power, they can miss the conditions that cause the majority of repeat incidents.

Common causes inside commercial buildings

Michael Harrington explains that many root causes are ordinary building conditions rather than dramatic failures. Large motor starts from chillers or rooftop makeup air units can create short voltage sags. Shared loads on the same phase can lead to uneven loading and harmonic distortion. Aging UPS systems with mismatched battery capacity or outdated firmware may react badly to transients and transfer when they should not. Poor grounding, loose neutrals, and imbalances can introduce intermittent overvoltage conditions.

What makes these issues difficult is that they often present as IT trouble instead of electrical trouble. A tenant calls about phones rebooting, a switch dropping, or devices acting erratically. Operations may respond by replacing endpoints or adding more UPS capacity before anyone proves whether the incoming power is stable enough for the equipment being protected.

Warning signs facilities teams should watch

The episode gives practical indicators that can help teams catch a problem before it escalates.

Recurring unexplained reboots of phones, switches, or other network devices
Flickering or dimming LED lighting
UPS logs that show short symmetric transfer events
Thermal hotspots on panels or bus bars during infrared scans
Tenant complaints that seem intermittent and hard to reproduce

These signals matter because they point teams toward correlation rather than guesswork. Instead of treating each complaint as an isolated ticket, facilities and IT leaders can compare timestamps, operating conditions, and device logs to see whether building events are driving technology failures.

A lightweight first-pass checklist

One of the strongest parts of the discussion is the emphasis on low-friction diagnosis before large capital work. The suggested checklist is straightforward and actionable.

Pull UPS event logs and compare them against tenant incident reports.
Check building automation logs around HVAC cycles.
Perform a visual inspection for loose breakers, corrosion, or overloaded panels.
Use a clamp meter to check for phase imbalance on feeder conductors.
Use infrared scanning to identify hot spots.
Borrow or rent a basic power quality logger for 24 to 72 hours during peak load periods.

This approach is useful because it gives building teams a way to gather evidence before assuming the answer is equipment replacement or a large electrical overhaul.

How to think about mitigation options

The episode does not offer one universal fix. Instead, it frames the decision around risk, frequency, and criticality. If a disturbance happens rarely and only during a predictable event such as a chiller startup, an operational fix may be enough. Teams may be able to adjust HVAC sequencing or add soft starts to reduce the event. If reboots happen weekly and sensitive systems are affected, then targeted electrical intervention becomes harder to avoid.

Several mitigation paths are compared:

Centralized power conditioning can reduce distortion across many tenants but is costly and disruptive.
UPS modernization or upsizing can improve ride-through and filtering but comes with capital cost and maintenance overhead.
Localized solutions such as dedicated tenant circuits, point-of-load UPS units, PDUs, and surge protection are faster and lower cost but do not resolve building-wide harmonic issues.

The practical decision framework is simple: how often does it happen, what is the tenant impact, and what does repeated operational response cost over time?

Common mistakes teams make

A major mistake discussed in the episode is treating the symptom instead of the cause. Adding more UPS capacity may reduce visible disruptions for a time, but if harmonics or grounding problems remain, the underlying issue is still there. Another mistake is specifying expensive centralized gear before baseline measurement is collected. That can waste budget and still miss the real problem. The conversation also highlights a standards issue: if tenant buildout requirements ignore power quality and dedicated circuit needs for sensitive loads, operations inherits the problem later.

Two real-world examples

The episode includes two concise but useful cases. In the first, a multi-tenant office experienced harmonic distortion tied to LED lighting and older variable frequency drives. Network switches were intermittently tripping. Rather than replacing core switching, the team matched log data with HVAC start timing, added line reactors to specific drives, staggered motor starts, and installed targeted surge protection at the telecom room. Weekly reboots dropped to zero.

In the second, a large tenant with sensitive lab equipment experienced repeated resets. UPS logs showed short transfer events that did not look like full outages. A short-term power quality logger captured high-frequency transients at a feeder panel. The root cause turned out to be a deteriorating neutral connection in a nearby distribution transformer. Repairing that connection and retuning grounding stabilized operations without a wholesale replacement project.

Five actions listeners can take now

Add power quality checks to preventive maintenance routines.
Correlate UPS and building automation logs with tenant incident timestamps.
Use temporary power quality loggers during peak operations.
Prioritize operational changes first, targeted repair second, and major capital work last.
Update tenant buildout and procurement standards to define minimum power quality expectations and dedicated circuit requirements for sensitive equipment.

Final takeaway

The central message of this episode is that reliable building operations depend on more than backup generators and green status lights. Voltage sags, harmonics, and transients can quietly degrade tenant experience, increase trouble calls, and create recurring IT issues that look random until someone measures the electrical environment properly. For property teams, facilities leaders, and IT decision makers, the most valuable next step is often not a replacement project. It is disciplined observation, log correlation, and targeted testing that turns a vague reliability problem into a fixable operational decision.

Deeper dive

Beyond Blackouts: Why Power Quality Is a Building Operations Problem

When building leaders think about electrical reliability, they usually think in binary terms. Either the power is on or it is off. Either the generator starts or it does not. Either the UPS carries the load or the outage becomes visible. That framing makes sense in emergencies, but it leaves out one of the most common causes of recurring tenant disruption: poor power quality.

In this episode of Built, Wired, and Secured, Alex Morgan and Michael Harrington explain why modern building technology can fail even when the lights stay on. Their discussion centers on a practical scenario that many property teams will recognize. A tenant, in this case a law firm, experiences repeated reboots of phones and a VoIP gateway several times a week. The generator passes testing. The UPS appears healthy. No one sees a dramatic outage. Yet the service tickets keep coming.

That gap between visible power loss and actual operational impact is where power quality becomes a business issue.

What power quality really means

The episode makes an important distinction. A blackout is obvious. Power is lost, services stop, and backup systems are supposed to take over. Power quality problems are quieter. A voltage sag can reduce available voltage for only a few cycles. A transient spike may be extremely brief. Harmonics can distort the electrical waveform because of nonlinear loads such as variable speed drives or certain LED drivers.

Those disturbances may not trip a breaker or create an event that looks dramatic to a building owner, but they can still create real consequences. Networking equipment, control electronics, phones, and other modern digital systems are often sensitive to even short disruptions. The result is not always a complete failure. It may be a reboot, a data error, a strange transfer event in a UPS, or equipment behavior that becomes unreliable but hard to reproduce.

For decision makers, that distinction matters because tenant experience is shaped by service continuity, not by whether a maintenance log labels the event an outage.

Why modern buildings are more exposed

Commercial buildings now support a much denser mix of sensitive technology than they did in the past. Voice services ride on IP infrastructure. Security systems depend on electronics and network paths. Building automation, tenant Wi-Fi, switching gear, access control, and specialized tenant equipment all rely on clean and stable power.

That means power quality is no longer just an electrical engineering concern. It is an operational reliability concern that affects occupancy, service delivery, and the building’s reputation with tenants. If phones reset, lab equipment misbehaves, or switches drop unexpectedly, tenants do not care whether the root cause sits inside an electrical panel, a UPS event log, or a distribution transformer. They experience it as building instability.

The usual causes are not exotic

One of the most useful parts of the episode is the reminder that common causes are often surprisingly ordinary. Large motor starts from chillers or rooftop makeup air units can produce short voltage sags. Shared electrical loads on the same phase can lead to imbalance and harmonic distortion. Aging UPS systems may misread transients, especially if battery capacity is mismatched or firmware is outdated. Poor grounding, loose neutrals, and intermittent overvoltage conditions can introduce problems that look random from the tenant side.

These are not always catastrophic failures. In many cases they are conditions that have developed gradually and now show up as recurring technology complaints. That is why teams often misdiagnose them. The symptom lands on the IT side, so the first response is to replace a switch, troubleshoot a phone system, or add UPS capacity. But if the electrical environment remains unstable, those fixes only mask the problem temporarily.

Signals that building teams should not ignore

The conversation highlights several warning signs that should prompt investigation. Repeated unexplained reboots of switches or phones are one. Flickering or dimming LED lighting is another. UPS logs that record short transfer events can also point to a power quality issue rather than a pure device fault. Thermal hot spots seen during infrared scans of panels or bus bars may reveal conditions that deserve immediate attention.

These indicators are valuable because they shift the response from guesswork to pattern recognition. Instead of chasing isolated tickets, facilities and IT teams can start correlating incidents with operating conditions. Did the event happen during an HVAC cycle? Did multiple complaints occur at the same time? Did the UPS log a transfer event when a tenant reported a reboot? Those correlations are often the shortest path to a credible root cause.

Start with evidence before spending capital

A strong theme in the episode is that teams do not need to jump straight to a major capital project. There is a practical first-pass workflow that uses data many buildings already have.

Start by pulling UPS event logs and lining them up with tenant incident reports. Review building automation logs around HVAC cycles. Conduct a visual inspection for loose breakers, corrosion, or overloaded panels. Use a clamp meter to check for phase imbalance and perform infrared scans for hot spots. If available, borrow or rent a basic power quality logger and capture 24 to 72 hours of voltage and current data during peak operating periods.

This approach matters because it gives decision makers something they often lack: proof. Once a team can show that disturbances align with specific loads or periods, they can stop debating whether the issue is electrical, operational, or IT related. They can act with confidence.

Choosing the right level of fix

Not every power quality issue deserves the same response. The episode frames the decision around three questions: how often does it occur, what is the tenant impact, and what is the cost of repeated operational response?

If the problem appears once a year during a specific startup event and the impact is acceptable, a simple operational change may be enough. Adjusting HVAC sequencing or adding soft starts to large motors can reduce disturbances without major construction. If sensitive systems reboot every week, the calculus changes. At that point, targeted electrical intervention is usually more defensible than continued reactive support.

The mitigation options each come with tradeoffs. Centralized power conditioning may help many tenants but can be expensive and disruptive. Modernizing or upsizing a UPS can improve ride-through and filtering but adds maintenance obligations. Localized solutions such as dedicated circuits, point-of-load UPS units, PDUs, or surge protection are often faster and less expensive, but they will not solve building-wide harmonic distortion.

The key lesson is that teams should match the solution to the scope of the problem instead of defaulting to the largest or most visible fix.

The cost of solving the wrong problem

Michael Harrington points to a classic mistake: treating symptoms rather than causes. More UPS capacity may reduce reboots for a while, but if harmonics or grounding issues remain, the underlying risk is still in place. Another mistake is specifying expensive centralized gear before collecting baseline measurements. That can consume budget without resolving the true failure mode. The episode also calls out a process problem that affects long-term operations: tenant buildout standards often fail to include power quality requirements or dedicated circuit information for sensitive loads. When that happens, the burden shifts back to building operations after move-in.

For owners and property teams, this is where power quality becomes a strategic issue. Poor standards create repeated support costs. Better standards reduce preventable incidents.

What the real-world examples show

The episode includes two clear examples of modest interventions producing meaningful operational results. In one multi-tenant office, LED lighting and older variable frequency drives created harmonic distortion that intermittently tripped network switches. Replacing the switches would have addressed the symptom, not the cause. Instead, the team aligned low-voltage events with HVAC starts, installed line reactors on the problematic drives, staggered large motor starts, and added targeted surge protection at the telecom room. Weekly reboots dropped to zero.

In another case, a tenant with sensitive lab equipment faced repeated resets that did not appear to be full outages. A temporary power quality logger captured repeated high-frequency transients at a feeder panel. The investigation traced the problem to a deteriorating neutral connection in a nearby distribution transformer. Repairing that connection and retuning grounding stabilized the environment without a building-wide replacement effort.

Both examples reinforce the same point: targeted evidence leads to targeted spending.

Five practical actions to adopt now

The episode closes with a short action list that is worth turning into policy. Add power quality checks to regular preventive maintenance. Correlate UPS and building automation logs with tenant incident timestamps. Use temporary power quality loggers during peak operations. Prioritize operational changes first, targeted repairs second, and major capital projects last. Update tenant and procurement standards so sensitive loads come with minimum power quality expectations and dedicated circuit requirements.

These are not abstract recommendations. They are low-friction habits that improve how buildings are operated, how technology incidents are triaged, and how budgets are defended.

Reliable operations depend on more than backup power

The most important idea in this episode is simple: reliable buildings are not protected by backup power alone. Generators and UPS systems matter, but they are not the full story. Voltage sags, harmonics, transient spikes, and grounding issues can quietly erode performance long before a major outage ever occurs.

For property owners, facilities managers, and IT leaders, that means the real question is not just whether the building stays powered. It is whether the technology environment stays stable enough to support tenants without recurring disruption. If your building is seeing intermittent resets, unexplained device behavior, or repeated service calls that seem disconnected from obvious outages, this episode offers a practical framework for turning those symptoms into measurable, fixable decisions.

For the full discussion and a clearer operational lens on building reliability, listen to the complete episode of Built, Wired, and Secured.