But on this occasion, for the first time, I had access to a portable power station. That meant I was able to simply unplug the machines from the wall and plug them into backup power without the outage affecting my son. This program pays for portable backup batteries, food replacement, transportation, and hotel stays related to power outages. A portable power station supplied to the McLelland family by their utility company, Pacific Gas & Electric. Using an indoor portable power bank is as easy as bending over to plug equipment into the device.