How to Build an Emergency Power Plan for a Business
The lights go out. Utility power has been interrupted.
Backup systems should activate—but something isn’t working as expected.
What happens next?
For a prepared organization, the answer shouldn’t begin with:
“Who are we supposed to call?”
National preparedness guidance emphasizes having an emergency plan that can be put into action when disaster strikes.
Businesses should apply that same principle to critical power.
Your Emergency Power Plan Starts With Six Questions
1. WHO is responsible?
Identify who has responsibility for critical-power decisions during an outage.
Facilities? Operations? Engineering? Property management?
Make those roles clear before an emergency.
2. WHAT equipment is affected?
Your team should have basic information about the generator and critical-power equipment serving the facility readily accessible.
3. WHERE is the equipment?
This may sound obvious to facilities professionals, but emergency response can involve other personnel, vendors or decision makers. Make sure the appropriate people understand where equipment is located and how authorized service personnel can access it.
4. WHICH operations take priority?
Identify the operations and systems your organization cannot afford to lose. Understanding priorities can help teams make better decisions during an emergency.
5. HOW will your organization respond?
Document internal escalation procedures and important contacts. If your organization has multiple facilities, determine how outages will be communicated and coordinated.
6. WHO is your critical-power service partner?
Don’t wait for an outage to start searching for help. Keep service information current and accessible to the people responsible for emergency response.
Prepared Equipment + Prepared People
Preventative maintenance prepares equipment. Emergency planning prepares people.
Businesses need both.
The strongest critical-power strategy considers what happens before the outage, during the outage and when something doesn’t perform as expected.
Prepare Before. Respond When.
National Preparedness Month is your opportunity to make sure your team knows the plan.
Review it. Update contacts. Confirm responsibilities. Check your equipment.
And make sure the people responsible for your facilities know exactly what happens next.