There's been plenty of rumours surrounding potential blackouts since the start of the energy crisis, but have you considered what power outages could mean for - and do to - your business?
We rely on electricity for almost everything, from communicating to manufacturing, making payments to opening doors, but we’re fortunate to live in a world where it is readily available and protected. Right?
The main narrative surrounding blackouts at the moment is largely around the Government conducting – and practicing for – planned outages if the country is unable to import enough gas and/or electricity from continental Europe in the wake of the war in Ukraine.
While planned outages are unlikely, the National Grid will be running close to maximum capacity and an incident that otherwise would be minor, could cause significant overloads, and unplanned outages.
Preparing for a blackout
There are two angles to your preparations – operations and IT. Many consider the former but neglect the latter, assuming generators will kick in or that uninterruptable power supplies will hold, and IT hardware will continue to operate without interruption.
There are lots of things to ask yourselves and consider as leaders, including:
1. Check your uninterruptable power supplies Have they been tested recently? How much run time do they have? How old are the batteries?
2. What’s the plan for the servers? How are they being shut down? How are they being secured? Who is assigned the task – and who’s the backup?
3. Temperature check. How will you keep vital equipment hot/cool to maintain your operation and remove risk of damaging hardware?
4. How up to speed are your staff? Do they know the business continuity plan? Is it accessible offline? Do they know where hardware and literal buttons are if needed?
Regardless of length, a blackout can have a catastrophic impact on your business, and therefore your brand, revenue and team. Don’t be caught out.
