"Sydney Hoeltzli" wrote in message
...

I work at a major medical center. We have emergency power, backed
by redundant generators. It's set up so that if it works as it should,
there aren't any "ugly powering-down sounds", it just comes on. If
the backup generator fails to report to work, there may be a little
glitch before the backup-backup comes online.

You should be running from conditioned power/batteries ALL THE TIME and the
backup generators should then keep the CPS charged until the regular juice
starts flowing.

Nevertheless, there have been situations where it did not work as
it should, and we have heard ugly powering-down sounds (the truly
essential stuff, like respirators and incubators, have a short-term
battery backup).

A few years ago, most of the west had a blackout that lasted several hours.
It's amazing how many critical (at leazst business critical) sites have only
battery backup to allow for graceful shutdown.