Power to CAK!
Posted on 06/16/2006
Lights off, air conditioning not working, power failure? We all have experienced this at one time or the other, but here at CAK we have planned for that happening. Prior to 1998 our electricity needs were provided by two incoming sources of cable which was meant to help prevent power loss at the airport. The thinking was that if one substation went down, that we could pull from another station on the other side of the field. Due to some frequent outages around that period of time Director Krum and Assistant Director McQueen made the decision that a reliable backup system was needed to prevent those inconveniences to our passengers. It is hard to land airplanes without landing lights and public areas become uncomfortable quickly without electricity. After much planning and the installation of a huge diesel generator, the airport has had the ability to keep its facility 100% running since1998.
The recent new gates, with plans for additional expansion in the future, required us to recently add a additional diesel generator unit. Many of you might remember the Northeast Ohio blackout several years ago, well our facility was up and running and accepting incoming traffic. Even our parking lot lights remain on during power outages. The only other major area facility that has complete backup power, to my knowledge, is the Ohio Turnpike. Keep us in mind if another power outage hits our area, we’ll have our airport up and running and you’re welcome to come cool off and enjoy a Subway Sandwich.
