This week, I visited one of our projects that covers several acres. It’s not ready for permanent power, but also needs power in a lot of locations. In the past, we’ve run conduit to a stationary board, which works, but has its downfalls. If there is too much load demand, breakers get tripped and the whole job shuts down until the problem can be fixed. There is very little flexibility to relocate easily. As walls go up, locations have to be changed. In short, productivity is lost.

On this project, we’ve brought in temporary power distribution units. Simply put, these units are daisy chained throughout the job, so that we now have multiple temp electrical locations. They are easy to move, with no single source. A few advantages:

• Safety. There are fewer cords, less chance of overload and all plugs are GFI protected.
• Portability. We can easily move the units from space to space to accommodate changing needs.
• Convenience. There are multiple plug in spots for equipment that needs to charge overnight.

While temporary power distribution units are frequently used in industrial construction, we are seeing potential with these system in our commercial mix. Good call by the management on this job.