Powering Through Adversity: Backup Generators Ensure Pharmaceutical Safety During Emergencies

The Summer of 2023 has proven to be a challenging time with respect to severe weather events throughout the country. These events can lead to widespread power outages and highlight the critical importance of a redundant power supply - to support controlled temperature units storing pharmaceutical material, bulk drug substances, active pharmaceutical ingredients, biological samples, and cell banks.

At Alcami, we are committed to strict adherence to cGMP regulatory requirements for storing and safeguarding your materials within their designated storage condition. As emergency events are unpredictable by nature, we remain in a constant state of readiness. Known throughout the industry as leaders in cGMP storage, we are often selected as a storage provider of choice, due to the multiple levels of security in redundancies built into our systems and our facilities.

This summer, one of our facilities in Pepperell, Massachusetts faced a local power outage due to a nearby storm. Within seconds of the power loss, one of our backup emergency generators activated and restored power to critical equipment and our facilities. Our monitoring systems worked as designed and immediately notified our staff of the outage. This notification prompted our team to perform a system check across that facility in real-time and physically walk the facility to account for any potential failures and to ensure all systems remained operational on backup power. The facility was returned to city power after approximately 40 minutes on the emergency generator.

Our backup emergency generators are activated monthly during preventive maintenance and load-tested annually. There are two generators located onsite. If the first generator had failed in this scenario, the second backup generator would have activated automatically. In addition to the rigorous PM schedule that ensures our facilities are in a constant state of readiness, our generators are also validated upon commissioning. This further provides the materials stored within our chambers with the best possible protection against the threat of a power outage.

Each diesel generator is equipped to provide 800 KW of power, which exceeds the current electrical demands of the facility. In the unlikely event of an extended power outage emergency, we are strategically located within 1 mile of our fuel provider.

Throughout this event in July, there was no data loss, no temperature excursions, and no deviations.

As a critical service provider to the Pharmaceutical and Biotech industry, Alcami prides itself on seamlessly integrating redundant utilities and monitoring technologies by design. Our proactive approach ensures that our customers maintain confidence in the secure and safe storage of their valuable assets.

Contact our Biostorage team today to learn more about how we can help ensure the safety and efficacy of your stored product