WHEN A HURRICANS IS APPROACHING, your attention immediately goes to the Weather Channel, cellphones or computers for updates, if you're in an affected area.When traveling, we can find out the approximate temperature, humidity, chance of rain or snow, visibility and sunrise and sunset times for the upcoming week, or even the upcoming month. This type of information is short-term at best, and weather conditions can and often do change while we are traveling there or after we arrive. What about other conditions that affect us? Is bad weather, a natural disaster or manmade disaster to be anticipated? Article 708, covering Critical Operations Power Systems (COPS), was inserted as a new article in the 2008 National Electrical Code to help deal with these emergencies and has remained relatively unchanged since its inception. Its scope states that "this article applies to the installation, operation, monitoring, control, and maintenance of the portions of the premises wiring system intended to supply, distribute, and control electricity to designated critical operations areas in the event of disruption to elements of the normal system. Critical operations power systems are those systems so classed by municipal, state, federal, or other codes by any governmental agency having jurisdiction or by facility engineering documentation establishing the necessity for such a system. These systems include, but are not limited to, power systems, HVAC, fire alarm, security, communications, and signaling for designated critical operations areas."
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