Winter is a high-risk period for power disruption. This is for all kinds of reasons, including an increased chance of storms and extreme weather, fewer staff on site and higher demand for electricity.
An unexpected outage can be disastrous for businesses, especially those that experience their busiest season during winter and the festive period. It can mean extended downtime, a loss of revenue, schedules thrown completely off-kilter and a serious reputational hit.
All of this is why having backup power is absolutely essential, along with a comprehensive business continuity plan for those unexpected winter emergencies.
Why Winter Puts Businesses at Higher Risk of Power Loss
The weather is the most obvious reason that winter is a peak period for power cuts. Severe weather including storms, snow, ice and high winds can cause havoc with the national electricity grid supply. Power lines can come down, substations can flood, and repairs take much longer due to weather conditions impeding access.
At the same time, extreme weather and the colder, darker winter season in general puts increased pressure on grid capacity. Demand for heat, light and power during winter is typically much higher than other times of year.
On top of all of that, many businesses simply aren’t prepared for winter power loss. Research from Centrica Business Solutions found that nearly one-third of organisations don’t have any form of Energy Resilience strategy in place.
What Is a Backup Power Supply?
There isn’t much that businesses can do about the weather, or problems with the national power supply. But what they can do is install reliable backup power solutions, so that they have a safety net in case of an unexpected outage.
A backup or emergency power supply provides electricity when the mains supply fails. Diesel generators are the most common solution, and they’re often used in tandem with uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) and automatic transfer switches (ATS).
When an outage is detected, the ATS automatically switches critical business power from the mains to the backup power source – such as a generator, for example.
However, there’s often a small delay while the generator starts up and reaches full capacity. The UPS is designed to bridge this gap, as it is battery powered and starts automatically when an outage is detected.
When used together, this kind of backup power supply system can keep core operations running. This may be safety systems, heating and lighting, or sensitive equipment such as servers, IT equipment or machinery that may be damaged – or critical processes interrupted – during a power cut.
Why Are Backup Power Sources Important During Emergencies
There are several reasons businesses should invest in backup power solutions, mainly related to continuity, safety and operational resilience.
In the event of partial outages, brownouts or complete grid failure, a backup power source can:
- Keeps critical systems running
- Maintain heating and environmental controls
- Keep staff and members of the public safe, by supporting fire and health and safety systems
- Protect data and prevent equipment damage
- Ensure customer service continuity
- Support regulatory and compliance requirements.
Organisations of all sizes can benefit from backup power solutions, and across industries ranging from manufacturing and retail to logistics, healthcare and data centres.
Each sector will have its own ‘downtime tolerance’, which is the amount of time an organisation can operate without power before experiencing costly consequences. For environments such as healthcare facilities and data centres in particular, this tolerance can be just a few seconds or minutes.
The Cost of Winter Power Failures for Businesses
The costs of a power outage in winter can be extremely high, with losses ranging from the hundreds to the thousands of pounds per hour of downtime. The exact figure depends on the size of the business and the sector, but in most cases it’s a financial hit that most organisations would find it difficult to absorb.
It’s not simply lost revenue either, as losses can also stem from:
- Paying staff who are unable to work
- Operational delays, missed deadlines and lost orders
- Breach of contract costs
- Spoiled stock (especially in relation to cold storage, the food and pharmaceuticals sector)
- Equipment damage from abrupt shutdowns
- Data loss and IT recovery costs
- Reputational damage and the erosion of customer trust.
Winter Contingency Plans for Power Security
Backup power should ideally form part of a wider business continuity and resilience strategy.
This should start with a comprehensive risk assessment and site survey, where vulnerabilities can be identified. This should also involve identifying the most critical operations to be supported in an outage, and the calculation of this critical electricity load in a real-life emergency.
Armed with this information, a suitable backup power solution can be chosen and accurately sized. A fuel storage and refuelling strategy can be developed, along with a maintenance, servicing and testing schedule. This ensures the generator or other backup power solution is kept in a state of full readiness, just in case of emergency.
Other key elements include staff training, emergency procedures and integration with broader business continuity plans.
How Pleavin Power Helps Businesses Stay Powered in Winter
Here at Pleavin Power, we provide reliable backup power solutions that keep businesses operational during winter outages.
From bespoke generator design and installation to contingency planning and ongoing support, each solution is tailored to your organisation’s exact critical power needs and downtime tolerance.
Together, we can significantly improve your company’s resilience, so you can face and overcome unexpected challenges in winter and all year round.
