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Tibs backs up the G8 Summit

Georgia electrical contractor provides power reliability and backup for powerful international summit hosted by President Bush

        ATLANTA, July 9, 2004 - While President George Bush, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair, French President Jacque Chirac, and other world leaders were solving the world's problems at the recent G8 Summit, one problem they didn't have to worry about was their electrical power going out, thanks to the Tibs Group.

Tibs, an electrical and technology company based in Suwanee, Ga., provided the backup power at several key venues utilized by the world's leaders during the three day Summit in June hosted by President Bush on Sea Island, Ga.

Working closely with Georgia Power, GE Energy Rentals, Critical Components (CCI), and T&D Machine Handling, Tibs installed temporary power generation and UPS (Uninterruptible Power Source) systems for the Sea Island Beach Club, the main location for Summit meetings, and for the Ocean Forest Golf Club, the Canon House, and the Summit's Multi-Agency Command Center, headquarters for the U.S. Secret Service and other government agencies.

"Our job was to make sure those buildings never lost power throughout the Summit," said Rick Adomnik, a Tibs Project/Design engineer who coordinated the construction and installation of the backup power systems.  "We had to make sure the lights didn't even blink, and they didn't," he added.

"Typically UPS systems are installed for indoors data center applications, so our major challenge was to design an environment for the electrical systems that worked outside. Plus whatever we designed had to be temporary and most importantly, inconspicuous," said Mark Tibbetts, CEO for Tibs Group. "In addition, we had to split out the mechanical to the power generation system and make sure that each system we installed worked seamlessly," he said.

To meet this powerful challenge, Tibs combined GE temporary backup generators with UPS systems and housed two of the systems in bulletproof, 12 ft. by 22 ft. controlled environmental vaults.

One of the vaults with an 800 KW generator, backed power for the Beach Club, and the other vault, with a 650KW generator, was used at the Ocean Forest Club House. CCI supplied both vaults and the 375 kVA UPS systems used by Tibs for the Summit project, said Adomnik.

On a tight schedule, with the Summit just days away, one Tibs' crew wired and prepped each site on Sea Island while a second crew prefabricated the vaults at a warehouse in Alpharetta.

Working inside the vault were Greg Geertgens, Keith Powell, Dale vault Abercrombie, Larry Kind, David Shaver and Rex. This Tibs' team built a complete, working electrical back-up system, installing UPS, batteries, transfer gear, and all other associated electrical components.

Then after Tibs extensively tested the systems, each vault was fully commissioned and hauled over 300 miles by a T&D truck to Sea Island. Once on the island and in place, the Tibs' crew connected the UPS and generators to the island's main power supply.

As for the vaults, to meet the 'make them inconspicuous' requirement, Sea Island landscapers used tropical plants and flowers as camouflage so the UPS systems and vaults, making them invisible to the dignitaries visiting the island.

At the Summit's end, the Tibs' team was back onsite to disconnect the UPS's and generators and restore everything back to its original condition. As a final step and to ensure that the re-connections were solid, Tibs conducted power assurance testing, shooting each connection with an infrared camera to check for loose wiring or hot spots and using ultrasonic equipment to test for power arcing.

"Providing such powerful UPS systems in itself was a challenge, but we also had the extra hurdle of working in a tight security 'red zone,'" said Paul Schieber, Field Service Manager for Tibs. Schieber, who along with Greg Brown of Tibs, worked on the island installing the vaults and UPS systems.

"Security for a world summit is always tight but in light of recent world events, the security at Sea Island was incredibly intense," he added. "The Secret Service shut down the island completely, three days before the Summit actually started, so we had to have our work completed before then," Schieber said. "But during the Summit, we never left the area. We stayed nearby in St. Simons just in case we were needed," he said.

"The Secret Service and the U.S. State Department both were really sold on our solutions for commissioning the electrical systems and for providing the backup power the Summit needed," said Tibbetts. "They also liked the fact that we had a power assurance program in place to test the systems and connections," he added.

"It took a great deal of team work for us to meet the challenges that we had at the Summit, but we did it," added Tibbetts. "Tibs was the quarterback with Rick, Paul and Greg leading the way, and Georgia Power, GE, CCI and T&D, were the key players working with Tibs to make this project happen," he said.

About Tibs Group

The Tibs Group is a single source provider of electrical, technology, power quality and security solutions. Founded in 1971 by Marvin Tibbetts as an electrical services company, Tibs Group (www.tibsgroup.com) expanded its offerings to include power quality, utility services, security, and technology solutions. Tibs Group, located at 3435 Martin Farm Road in Suwanee, Ga., has more than 1000 customers including Bank of America, Sony, Emory University, Chick-fil-A, Georgia Power, BellSouth, Coca Cola, Goodyear Tire & Rubber and Lincoln Properties.

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Contact: Diane N. Bates, Tibs Group, dbates@tibsgroup.com  678.546.6400  

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