American football - Failure is never an option

The prime-time TV broadcast of Sunday football is the week’s most important American football game during football season. Other broadcasts during the week have several games being played simultaneously – so if the power fails at one game, they can switch to another – but not on Sunday night. It’s a one-game thing, and the broadcaster needs to rely on Aggreko to keep the power on, so they can keep the prime-time TV broadcast on the air. In the past, they would burn 1200 gallons of fossil fuel to power these games, but now we’ve got a cleaner, greener solution that is helping to reduce their carbon footprint.

We provide a plug-and-play, custom- built, self-adapting container with 6 x Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS). The container is highly mobile and has its own air conditioning and heat, meaning if one AC system fails, the equipment is not in jeopardy of overheating because a second AC system kicks in. Inside, each UPS has its own battery rack, capable of running for 10 minutes on DC power with no external power input. Each UPS also has an independent automatic transfer switch (ATS) through which the stadium utility power runs.

So, if any individual circuit breaker fails from the stadium, the UPS continues to provide power to the television truck, and the ATS senses the loss. The ATS then signals the 500 KW generator to auto- start and provide power seamlessly, so the broadcast continues to go out over the airwaves. If something happens, the system automatically sends texts to the on-site team. It’s designed so that even if all the power from the stadium fails in the television compound, we can still provide enough power to keep it “on-air.”

Our solution ensures that the broadcast of the most important prime time football games is seamless. These mobile containerized Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) make for the perfect system to ensuring power is never lost. Our system can prevent failures due to heavy loads and system overheating. If the grid fails, the UPS and generator work together flawlessly as the system is set up to automatically start if utility power loss is sensed.

The broadcast will seamlessly remain on-air without skipping a beat. There are 24 games in the season, and Aggreko will be there for every single one. So, all American football fans out there enjoy the game knowing we’ve got this.