We live in a society that depends on electrical power for virtually everything. When you’re running a business, whether it’s a massive warehouse, a factory, a retail shop, or a small office, you can’t afford to be without power for long. You have daily goals to meet, and a power outage can put you behind schedule, even if the power is only out for several hours.
The financial consequences of electrical downtime can be devastating. In some industries, a one-hour blackout can cost millions of dollars. For instance, according to survey data, a one-hour power outage costs more than $300,000 for 81% of businesses and between $1 and $5 million for 33% of businesses.
Although you can’t predict when the electrical power will go out next, you can be certain that it will happen at some point. The best you can do is be ready ahead of time to minimize downtime, activate a backup power source, and restore your main source of power as soon as possible.
When The Electrical Power Goes Out, It Will Cause A Cascade Of Negative Effects, Including:
- Operations will come to a halt.
- Employees will need to go home, which causes lost productivity.
- Projects will fall behind schedule, compromising deadlines.
- Data might be lost or corrupted depending on the cause of the electrical power outage.
- You might need to repair or replace expensive equipment if its failure caused the power outage or if it was damaged.
- Customers will become upset if their needs are not being met.
- Your brand reputation could be harmed.
- Other businesses that depend on your company to serve their customers will be upset.
The financial loss from the effects listed above can be enormous. In addition to lost revenue, customers will be disappointed, and your reputation might suffer. You can avoid these issues by investing time and money in power continuity for your business. If you don’t have a power continuity plan, here’s how you can create one.
Be Aware Of All Potential Causes Of Electrical Power Failure
The first step to being prepared for an electrical outage is knowing all the possible causes. For example, the following factors commonly disrupt power:
- Lightning strikes
- Transformer failure that causes a fire and/or an explosion
- Downed trees that fall on a power line
- Cars that crash into power poles
- Natural weather, like storms, floods, snow, ice, and earthquakes
- Birds that cause a short circuit by coming into contact with a power line
- Overloaded circuits
- Faulty transmission lines
- Planned rolling blackouts
- Cyberattacks against the grid
- Intentional damage to electrical infrastructure
- Operational errors
- Scheduled downtime by utility companies
- Fuel shortages at the main electrical power plant
These are some of the most common reasons for electrical outages, and it’s important to be prepared for these situations. Once you know what might go wrong, you can create a strategy to keep your business operations running smoothly.
Fix Known Problems Immediately
If any existing problems might become a disruption, like a failing transformer, fix them immediately. If you’ve been avoiding buying a new transformer because you can’t find an exact replacement, talk to a manufacturer who will retrofit a new transformer into your existing space with custom bus work.
Implement A UPS As Soon As Possible
Your first order of business should be to get an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). A UPS provides near-instantaneous electrical power during an outage and gives you time to connect longer-term backup power sources, like generators.
Although a UPS is typically battery-based, there are systems powerful enough to handle large equipment. You can customize your UPS to include protection from power surges, lightning strikes, and other typical disruptions.
A UPS will play a critical role in the case of an electrical power outage because it will give you and your employees time to save their work and shut down computers and other equipment properly, avoiding the potential for lost or corrupted data.
Get Additional Backup Electrical Power Sources
Your UPS will only carry you for several hours at best. It’s not designed to be a permanent solution – it’s the system that will buy you the time required to connect longer-term electrical power sources, like generators.
Test Your System Regularly
Last, test your electrical power continuity system regularly to ensure it functions as intended. Run a drill at least every six months to ensure your UPS engages and gives you enough time to shut down equipment and start running your generators safely. Don’t leave anything to chance.