How to Prepare Your Business for a Power Outage
September is National Preparedness Month—a time dedicated to helping Americans prepare before emergencies and disasters happen.
This year’s theme, “Americans Stand Ready,” puts the focus on taking responsibility for preparedness before the unexpected occurs.
For businesses, that raises an important question:
If the power went out today, would your organization be ready?
Power disruptions can happen for any number of reasons—from hurricanes and severe storms to flooding, extreme temperatures, utility interruptions and equipment failure.
And September is an especially important time to ask the question. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency notes that September is the peak of hurricane activity and encourages homeowners, communities and businesses to use National Preparedness Month to identify ways to prepare for disasters and reduce risk.
For businesses, one critical piece of that preparation is understanding your power risk.
Start By Knowing What Is at Risk
The National Weather Service identifies “Be Informed” as the first step toward preparedness: understand the hazards that could affect you, know how to prepare for them and have a reliable way to receive emergency information.
Businesses can apply that same thinking to their facilities.
Start by asking:
- Which locations are most vulnerable to severe weather?
- Which operations depend on continuous power?
- Which systems are considered mission critical?
- What would happen after 30 minutes without power? Four hours? A full day?
- Which systems are currently protected by backup power?
- When was that equipment last inspected or tested?
- How will your team receive and respond to severe weather alerts?
You can’t prepare for a power emergency until you understand where your vulnerabilities are.
Know What Keeps Your Business Running
For many organizations, backup power isn’t simply a convenience.
It can support critical building systems, security, refrigeration, communications, IT infrastructure, medical equipment, elevators and other essential operations.
The impact of losing power also extends beyond equipment.
Employees may depend on your facility.
Customers may depend on you remaining operational.
Tenants, patients or residents may depend on critical building systems continuing to function.
That’s why power preparedness should be considered part of a broader business continuity strategy.
Don’t Assume Backup Power Means You’re Prepared
Having a generator installed doesn’t automatically mean a facility is ready.
A generator that hasn’t been properly inspected, tested or maintained may develop issues that aren’t discovered until the system is needed most.
Preparedness means knowing:
- Your equipment has been maintained.
- Your generator can start and operate as expected.
- Your automatic transfer switch is functioning.
- Batteries and other critical components have been inspected.
- Your team knows what to do if utility power fails.
- Your emergency service information is current.
These are questions worth answering before the next storm appears in the forecast.
Preparedness Starts Before the Emergency
National Preparedness Month is a reminder that resilience doesn’t begin when an emergency happens.
It begins with the actions organizations take beforehand.
Understand your risks.
Know your critical systems.
Review your emergency procedures.
Maintain your backup-power equipment.
And make sure your team knows who to call when something doesn’t go according to plan.
Americans Stand Ready. Make sure your business does, too.
GenServe can help you evaluate your critical-power preparedness before your systems are put to the test. Reach out to our team today to ensure your backup power strategy is ready when it matters most.