From utilities and energy projects to industrial and commercial businesses, sectors across the board rely on a consistent power supply. When the power goes out, a reactive stance can cost thousands to millions of dollars. Whether it’s an unexpected storm or sudden equipment failure, organizations simply cannot afford to be unprepared.
While power outages happen without warning, you can reduce their impact by creating a comprehensive emergency response plan. With established protocols for employee training, communication methods and power equipment rentals, you can stay operational when emergencies arise.
Power Outage Causes and Impact
Power outages can result from catastrophic events or isolated incidents. Common causes include:
- Weather: From 2000 to 2023, winter storms, hurricanes, strong winds and other weather events accounted for 80% of power outages in the United States.
- Equipment issues: Internal systems and equipment may malfunction or break, leading to localized or widespread power loss.
- Grid failure: Power grids can overload during peak usage periods and cause brownouts and blackouts.
Depending on the sector affected, power outages can cause various electrical hazards, fire risks and safety concerns for employees, customers and the public. They can also disrupt operations, leading to costly downtime, reduced productivity and decreased revenue.
3 Essential Steps to Prepare for Power Outages
The first step to reducing losses due to power outages is to create an emergency response plan (ERP). A comprehensive ERP enables you to keep operations running smoothly and safely during the blackout and after the power is restored. Clear protocols enable you to better protect employees, minimize financial loss and decrease downtime.
1. Assess Your Risk
Proactive business continuity planning ensures your organization is prepared for an outage at any moment. A risk assessment will help you understand what your specific industry faces:
- Utilities: Power outages disrupt critical services and put field workers at risk. If not dealt with promptly, power outages can have cascading effects that lead to restoration complexity, regulatory fines and degraded customer trust.
- Renewables: An outage can disrupt energy production and production revenue. Mechanical hazards and equipment stress caused by repeated shutdowns and startups can be costly and dangerous.
- Industrial: Sudden outages can damage machinery, halt production and disrupt the supply chain. They can put workers at risk and make it difficult to salvage materials.
- Commercial: Without a reliable power supply, businesses may lose products, customers and revenue. Outages can impact operations and communication, leading to reputational harm.
Once you have a clear picture of your unique risk profile, you can create a customized response plan to mitigate threats to your operation and revenue. With an established plan, you can respond quickly when issues arise.
2. Audit Inventory and Equipment
Assess inventory, equipment and other tools essential for your organization’s successful operation. Create a plan explaining how to allocate resources to protect your most critical investments. Dictate which equipment to turn off and unplug during an outage and which to stay on to enhance efficiency during the blackout.
Determine which operations must continue even when the power goes out. Depending on your sector, a few priorities may include:
- Life safety systems, such as emergency lighting, communication systems and fire alarms
- IT systems
- Production lines
- Critical data backup
- Premise security
To protect equipment and operations, your organization may need to invest in:
- Generators: Backup generators for businesses, renewable energy projects and utilities ensure a continual power supply for critical applications.
- Uninterruptible power supply (UPS): A UPS provides temporary power to protect against sudden power loss.
- Surge protection: Protect sensitive electronic devices from power surges and voltage fluctuations with surge protection.
3. Develop Emergency Response Protocols
You can minimize disruption during an outage with preplanned procedures and outlined communication trees. Conduct regular drills and maintenance checks. Gathering feedback and identifying any concerns in employee responses can help you improve your emergency response plan.
Disaster recovery planning should include protocols for employee training, ensuring they know how to respond to emergencies such as power outages. Each team member should clearly understand their responsibilities during an outage and what to do to remain safe.
Temporary Power Options
Depending on your needs and your project’s timeline, renting power equipment from power experts like Sunbelt Solomon may make more sense for your operations than purchasing new. By choosing to rent what you need from a trusted partner, you can maximize uptime, minimize spending and streamline your operational efficiency.
Sunbelt Solomon makes maintaining operations during outages possible with temporary power equipment such as:
- Transformers: When faced with an extended outage, your organization can rent transformers to rapidly and reliably restore power for critical operations. Rental transformers offer a cost-effective power solution for unexpected events.
- Switchgear: Protecting equipment and workers is a top priority during a power outage. Renting switchgear ensures rapid deployment that minimizes downtime and ensures safety.
Why Choose Sunbelt Solomon for Emergency Power Solutions?
Sunbelt Solomon has extensive experience and expertise in temporary power solutions. We offer short and long-term rental options and comprehensive support to ensure your organization can power essential operations.
Extensive Inventory
We carry a large inventory of low, medium and high-voltage transformers and switchgear. Our vast inventory, supplemented by custom-designed solutions, ensures that we have the equipment you need for your specific application.
We offer flexibility that ensures you can get the parts you need for last-minute emergencies. Rapid deployment gets power solutions to your organization quickly, enabling you to minimize downtime and protect your operations.
Full-Service Support
Sunbelt Solomon offers full-service support for renting power equipment. Our team will handle delivery logistics, maintenance and in-field repairs to help you maximize your rental investment. With turnkey solutions, expert technicians and ongoing support, Sunbelt Solomon makes renting during emergencies straightforward and convenient.
When the power goes out, you need equipment immediately. Sunbelt Solomon provides parts at any time of day through our national network of service centers and 24/7 emergency services. You can trust us to deliver what you need to stay fully operational with minimal downtime.
Sustainability and Compliance Expertise
Ensuring regulatory compliance and continued sustainability efforts through a power outage demonstrates your commitment to the environment, resulting in reduced risk of fines and improved reputation. Our experts can guide you through sustainability and compliance requirements as you develop an emergency plan.
We offer sustainable equipment options, such as build America, buy America (BABA)- compliant equipment, natural ester fluids and energy-efficient designs. We also offer the power choices you need to achieve eligibility for government projects and incentives, protect the environment and maintain operations during an outage.
Rent Reliable Power Solutions From Sunbelt Solomon
Preparation is the key difference between a significant disruption and a minor inconvenience. By preparing and planning for power outages, you can ensure safety and minimize downtime. Sunbelt Solomon has the temporary power solutions you need to protect your organization.
Request a quote for temporary power equipment or contact us today for custom power outage preparedness solutions.
