Uninterruptible power supply to be replaced at county jail

Electricians have been hired by Jasper County to install an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) that will make it so the sheriff’s office, jail and dispatch do not have to experience any downtime in case a storm or other event causes a blackout. For instance, the UPS would still allow phone calls to be received by dispatch.

Jasper County Maintenance Director Adam Sparks presented quotes from three electrical contractors during the Sept. 3 board of supervisors meeting. He said the UPS feeds in between the transition of the generator from regular power to generator power. The county had already spent $40,600 for the UPS itself.

Van Maanen Electric, Inc. submitted the low bid of $8,516 to tear out the existing machine, install the new machine using the existing wiring and then disposing of the old machine. Sparks said he had other companies look at doing an external transfer switch, but the expensive price tag made the county opt out.

“All that switch was going to let us do, guys, is if we put a switch like that in once this UPS was in, mainly down the road when somebody has to replace this unit again or if there is ever an incident with this unit, this transfer switch would let us take that unit out without any hiccups in between the lines,” Sparks said.

When the contractor gets on site to tear out the old UPS, the county will have to run extension cords to certain areas to keep them in power while replacing the unit. The external transfer switch would have eliminated the need for that, but Sparks said the cost was not worth it.

In addition to Van Maanen, two other electrical contractors submitted quotes. Kline Electric submitted an $8,546 bid and Gritters Electric, Inc. submitted an $8,887 bid.