FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Melinda Maas, ESI TOTAL FUEL MANAGEMENT
December 12, 2012 1-703-263-7600
Even During Hurricane Sandy, ESI Total Fuel Management Delivers
Chantilly, Va., firm closes gap in U.S. fuel distribution supply chain
Chantilly, VA – ESI Total Fuel Management, the leader in Diesel Fuel Quality Systems Management™, successfully helped data centers and other critical power facilities along the U.S. east coast prevent catastrophic data and power loss during Hurricane Sandy by initiating pre-storm fuel deliveries, and then completing customer deliveries after the storm when other providers could not. When the diesel fuel delivery infrastructure failed – as it usually does during disasters of this type – ESI sourced fuel from as far away as Norfolk, Va., to help beleaguered facility managers.
“Once again our team worked 24-7 to deliver urgently needed diesel fuel to both new and existing customers when others could not,” says Alex Marcus, ESI’s President. “We first worked with our existing customers prior to the catastrophe, initiating fuel deliveries to ensure their business continuity throughout the storm. Then we successfully delivered diesel fuel to new customers who were unable to secure delivery from their regular providers.”
Diesel fuel risk management and continuity are the essence of ESI Total Fuel Management’s business. The firm eliminates diesel fuel-related risks in the Diesel Fuel Lifecycle™, a much-needed service for critical power operations that rely on diesel generators for backup power.
According to a November 16, 2012, post-storm article in Data Center Knowledge, facilities still struggle to control those risks: “The gaps and risks uncovered over the past two weeks demonstrate numerous vulnerabilities and design failures for IT mechanical and electrical systems, business continuity plans and operational procedures,” the article states.
As this “Frankenstorm” strengthened, ESI continued to monitor its progress and began planning for the worst-case customer scenarios. Once it became clear that the storm would threaten critical power continuity for facilities in the DC-Metro and Northeast regions, ESI alerted its current customers and helped them assess their readiness for reliable diesel generator starts. This pre-disaster business continuity assessment is a best practice service that ESI provides to its customers as part of an integrated service delivery platform which is designed to eliminate diesel generator failure due to any fuel-related cause.
“To our surprise,” recounts Marcus, “an alarming number of facilities were unaware of the potential seriousness of this event and had not taken adequate measures to ensure their fuel stores were in place to survive the storm. Some of our regular customers were fortunate to receive the alert from us and had no issues during the storm.”
Other facilities were not so lucky. As is common with disasters of this type, the diesel fuel delivery infrastructure, which is based on a local retail configuration and priority commercial contracts, fell apart immediately after the storm hit the New York Harbor (NYH) area, a vital fuel refinery and distribution hub. David Sandalow, U.S. Under Secretary of Energy, described the local energy infrastructure as “paralyzed.” From as far away as New York, ESI’s emergency number was inundated with diesel fuel delivery requests because of power outages at distribution terminals at NYH.
According to a post-storm report by the U.S. Energy Information Agency, “The hurricane damaged much of the petroleum supply infrastructure in the NYH area, including both of the refineries in northern New Jersey and many of the terminals. The damage to the refineries and the terminals significantly disrupted the supply chain. Immediately following the storm, the lack of commercial or generator power kept many terminals from operating.”
“By perfecting a business model that leverages our 70-year-plus knowledge of the oil industry and how distribution really works, we were in a position to plan, then immediately begin tapping fuel sources in Philadelphia in order to reach Northeastern customers,” says Marcus. “By 8 p.m. the night of the storm, we were delivering diesel from hundreds of miles away when local providers could not. That’s pretty impressive, especially given the magnitude of this particular storm and its risks.”
To continue the job of reaching customers, ESI worked the night of the storm and extended its working hours in the days following, eventually putting together fuel delivery packages from sources as far away as Norfolk, Va., in order to keep the diesel flowing northward. Most ESI deliveries occurred in the New York-New Jersey metro area; Washington, D.C.; Northern Virginia, and Maryland.
ESI’s headquarters is in Northern Virginia, an area of particular concern due to the density of data centers in the region. It is here that ESI first expanded its business beyond manufacturing diesel fuel cleaning equipment to include services related to risk management and business continuity. Currently, ESI is the only provider to offer diesel fuel quality equipment and service – as well as fuel delivery – as a core business.
“We are a unique company with niche manufacturing and design expertise, and we fly mostly under the radar,” says Marcus, “until disaster strikes. Then data centers and facilities begin to understand their entire scope of risk with the diesel fuel supply chain.”
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About ESI Total Fuel Management
ESI Total Fuel Management’s mission is to eliminate diesel generator failure due to fuel-related causes. ESI is the proven industry expert in reliable diesel fuel filtration and lifecycle risk management, providing effective Diesel Fuel Quality Systems Management to diesel generator critical power systems worldwide. ESI is the first and only company to address both internal and external risks throughout the Diesel Fuel Lifecycle while including diesel fuel access and delivery as a standard competency. In 2005, during Hurricane Katrina, ESI Total Fuel Management delivered over 1 million gallons of emergency diesel fuel to government, private and commercial customers when other providers could not. ESI also manufactures the ESI Clean Fuel System™, a patented standard in fuel polishing design (now in its 5th generation) which revolutionized the critical power and marine industries.