What is a Power Outage?
A power outage occurs when the electricity supply to a premises suddenly ceases. Small disruptions can occur quite often – we occasionally witness the momentary flicker of our lights and have to reset our electrical clocks, often accompanied by the sound of house alarms during a heavy storm. However, while lengthy outages tend to be relatively rare, both events can significantly affect a business, especially when computers that are typically on 24 hours a day reset but don’t power on again after a reset, or if electrical machinery needs to be restarted.
On the other hand, resilience is broadly defined and accepted as “the ability to resist being affected by an event or the ability to return to an acceptable level of performance within an accepted period of time following the effect of an outage that may have caused electrical equipment to shut down.”
How Can Businesses Mitigate Against a Power Outage?
It is very difficult for utility companies or businesses themselves to anticipate a power outage. There are far too many external influences that are completely outside their control. However, energy-efficient businesses housed in energy-efficient buildings, where there is the facility to store energy on-site, can provide better protection for themselves.
The Risks of Electricity Supply Failure and a Power Outage
While a power outage undeniably disrupts electricity supply to premises, the severity of the risk varies significantly based on the type of business, industry sector, and specific operations. Businesses need to carefully evaluate their individual reliance on electricity, any existing precautions in place, and what the consequences might be of a potentially lengthy outage.
If you are a business where a significant portion of staff works from home, the consequences may seem substantially diminished– however, any business using IT remotely, for example, needs to be aware they will need off-site (cloud) storage to ensure they are not affected by local storage going offline should there be a power outage.
Causes of a Power Outage
For continuity risks, generally, the biggest consideration is the magnitude of disruption and loss resulting from an outage. However, there are factors dictating the likelihood of an outage occurring, such as historic reliability, nearby construction or demolition works, ongoing changes to utility supply, the physical location of substations and distribution equipment, plus the side effects of ‘big risks’ such as flooding due to climate change.
Environmental Influences
Weather and storms, excessive heat or cold (which can also cause electrical equipment to fail), rain, lightning strikes, and wind causing trees to fall and bring down power lines are common external causes of power outages outside the control of utility companies and businesses alike.
Vehicle Incursions
Electricity pylons and poles being crashed into by vehicles, perhaps as a result of poor weather-related vehicle control issues, can cause quite extensive outages, especially in outlying districts.
People at Work
Excavations and digging where due diligence has not been applied can result in power lines being severed and outages caused.
High Volume Power Demand
Outages can occur during periods of high demand where the system simply cannot cope. Cables, transformers, and other equipment can also be at risk of fusing or melting.
Fauna
Small animals (such as squirrels, rats, and birds), despite their diminutive size, can make their way into power equipment and short-circuit it, whether seeking somewhere warm to shelter or gnawing through cables and electrocuting themselves.
Age
Older equipment can fail simply by reaching the end of its useful working life.
Being Ready by Building Resilience for an Outage
Some measures should be considered to be ready for an outage. For suppliers of critical equipment, it is important that a regular maintenance schedule is in place.
– Consider installing a backup uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for critical electrical equipment that maintains vital operations and/or provides for a safe shutdown/restart.
– Wind or solar power as a backup with electricity/energy storage capacities as a backup supply for business-critical equipment. This can also be a permanent switchable connection.
– Installation of a microgrid to manage internal power, especially useful if that power is produced by a generator, wind turbine, or solar.
– The use of Voltage Optimisation to mitigate against over-voltage provision and subsequent unnecessary power wastage, preventing a finite power supply from being directed to where it is most needed.
– Self-sufficiency for an extended period using a permanent on-site generator or contingency for the speedy installation of a rental generator at short notice.
– Construction of an external bund flood barrier (a bank created from earth) to mitigate against water ingress for businesses located in flood-risk locations.
– Where working from home is feasible, ensure backup data is maintained and can be accessed via independent secure transmission, for example, cloud storage.
– Have safe power-down facilities in place to protect equipment that may require a shutdown sequence when being turned off or on.
– Always advise the utility provider of any business-critical equipment upon its installation.
For those solely dependent on external utility power provision, it is worth noting the advances that have been made in battery-powered UPS (uninterruptible power supply) systems that provide backup during a power outage. UPS systems are also used extensively in situations where the main voltage supply drops and affects the performance of equipment connected to it.
While UPS systems come in all shapes and sizes, they all have the great benefit of providing power almost immediately when the main power fails. They now feature built-in sensors that can detect a power interruption or outage instantly and activate immediately to restore power, thus ensuring your business is not affected. By ensuring you have a suitably sized UPS system installed in your business premises, you can remain independently powered until the main power is restored.
Furthermore, innovative solutions such as Powerstar’s Battery Energy Storage Systems have an optional integrated area-wide UPS, providing back up power nearly instantaneously, for even the most critical of sites.
Backup Generators
Whether you use diesel, gas, or propane, backup or standby generators, they can form the backbone of a power supply system in the event of a main power outage. They can be used via an alternator as a continuous source of emergency power until the main source is restored. They are suitable for most applications and have a secondary benefit when used to offset peak power requirements when utilised in tandem with microgrids.
Maintaining Your Equipment
You may have the most up-to-date and reliable electrical equipment in your business premises, but like any piece of equipment with moving parts, it will be subject to wear and tear. By not having your equipment serviced and maintained regularly, especially those forming your backup systems to run your electrical equipment and maintain your power resilience, it can break down.
Regular servicing and maintenance will ensure you are prepared for any unforeseen power outage.
