With climate issues and power demands placing additional stress on power grids throughout the U.S., business owners may want to plan beyond the weather for potential outages wherever they operate.1
Consider this blueprint to help your team weigh future power risks that could interrupt business for days, weeks or possibly longer.
Planning for Potential Weather Events
Advance planning for a potential shutdown or utility loss can help you minimize damage. Having a restoration and recovery plan for outages is essential.
Some best practices to include in your plan are:
Securing buildings to prevent unauthorized access if power fails. This includes making sure outdoor lights along the perimeter of your property work and continuously monitoring entryways and access systems.
Inspecting heating systems before winter to make sure they’re working. Indoor temperature should be at least 50 degrees to prevent freezing during colder weather.
Establishing a water damage prevention plan. Businesses should have equipment and supplies for water or fluid cleanup if pipes burst, including tarps, pumps and dam material to isolate flooding. It’s also important for this plan to identify key responders to start the cleanup.
Developing an alternative energy plan. If generators or battery energy storage systems are needed, this plan will outline how various equipment should work and for what length of time.
Maintaining fire protection systems. Scheduling regular inspections and assuring power backup can help keep fire protection working even in an outage.
Using IoT-equipped devices. Internet-of-Things (IoT)-equipped machinery and devices can provide real-time monitoring of critical systems and equipment. Some can also let users see temperature remotely and issue alerts for water detection or power loss.
Contracting a security service. Security services can provide an extra level of protection if utilities fail.
Preparing for Events That Can Produce Outages
Sometimes storms or other weather-related events have the potential to disrupt normal power service. This can happen if a storm is likely to bring:
- High winds
- Subfreezing temperatures
- Icy and snowy conditions
- Flooding
Knowing how a weather event can potentially impact your business can help you prepare. Partner with professionals to inspect your entire facility for vulnerabilities, and if you notice damage, make necessary repairs before seasonal weather events occur.
Not all of your utilities are critical, so turn off the ones not needed for:
- Fire protection
- Fire alarms.
- Sump pumps
- Heating
- Critical processes or equipment
Power outages during severe cold can lead to frozen or burst pipes. To help prevent this, shut off and drain any unnecessary water flow, thereby limiting the number of pipes that can freeze
If you need fuel for generators, check your storage tanks and top them off. Make sure you regularly inspect your battery energy storage systems that power critical equipment and processes.
If a winter storm is expected to bring snow, consider a vendor for snow removal to prevent employee injury or property damage.
Managing Your Business During a Prolonged Loss of Utility Service
If you find out that your utilities will be out for a longer period of time, make sure your business continuity plan and disaster recovery plan are current and address such a situation. Consider adding plans to move to another facility or location that can provide make-up capacity, continue business in a limited way or provide proper storage for critical finished goods.
- Communication will be critical in an outage. Your business will need a communication plan with specific instructions for employees, vendors and customers.
From Recovery to Restart
Every business’ recovery will be different, but you can start the process by:
- Taking immediate steps to ensure the safety of your employees, vendors and customers.
- Identifying any potential damage, then securing your building and utilities.
- Professionally inspecting electrical systems to determine whether they are safe to test and restore. Qualified electricians should be accompanied by two or three other team members to provide backup and ensure care if accidents happen.
- Repowering circuits in a methodical way to diagnose electrical problems elsewhere in the system.
- Inspecting and testing equipment and machinery to ensure they’re in safe condition. Some equipment may need to be recertified or recommissioned before use.
- Restarting heat after checking pipes and vents for leaks and damage.
- Flushing and recharging fire protection systems after checking for damage.
- Inspecting equipment that was turned off for safety before or during the outage prior to turning it back on. Generally, this equipment may need to be inspected, cleaned and sanitized, such as:
- Boilers
- Furnaces and air conditioning systems
- Dampers
- Ductwork
- Ventilation openings
- Fuel and power supplies
- Other designated equipment
Review your business continuity plan regularly to see if you need to make changes to the restoration and recovery procedures you’ve set for employees, vendors and suppliers.
Expertise Can Speed Recovery After an Outage
A carrier with a qualified risk engineering team can design a customized loss control plan so when events happen, recovery can begin immediately. Such teams should provide:
- Experienced staff with a local and national footprint to help restore power and operations safely.
- Technical specialists who can inspect damage and ready machinery, technology and other operating functions for a safe restart.
- Onsite and virtual risk management services available when events happen.
1 “How the Surging Demand for Energy and Rise of AI Is Straining the Power Grid in the U.S.,” CBS News, July 19, 2024.
