Thriving Amidst the Energy Waves
A Strategic Guide to Business Electricity Resilience
A reliable, uninterrupted supply of power is critical for any business. However,
the risk of power outages and interruptions has never been greater. Recent
blackouts and brownouts have shown the fragility of the grid and the devastation
even short disruptions can cause. That's why improving your organization's
energy resilience must be a top priority.
This guide covers proven strategies you
can implement to minimize reliance on
the grid, secure reliable electricity for
business, and ultimately protect against
costly power failures. Follow these best
practices to ensure your operations can
weather any storm.
The Growing Threat of Power Interruption
While total grid failure is rare in developed nations, local outages and brownouts
occur frequently. In fact, multiple studies show that power interruption costs
industrial facilities billions annually. Even milliseconds of power loss causes
significant financial damage and lost productivity.
And the risk is rising. Electricity demand continues to climb even as grids add
more variable renewable sources like solar and wind. This makes balancing
supply and load more difficult, increasing chances of failure. Extreme weather
associated with climate change also threatens infrastructure.
Simply put, all signs point to an increasingly unstable grid. Organizations must
act now to offset this volatility and secure their access to power. Indeed, those
who fail to act risk dire financial, operational, and reputational consequences.
Transition to On-Site Power Generation
The most effective way to safeguard your business from grid supply issues is
shifting to on-site, independent power generation. Installing sources like solar,
wind turbines, fuel cells, microturbines, or backup generators can eliminate
reliance on external transmission lines.
On-site power generation offers several key benefits as follows:
More reliability
With your own generation capacity, you control energy delivery rather than
depending on the grid. You can power through outages affecting the external
network.
Lower costs
Producing your own electricity on-site often costs less than retail power over
time. You also avoid demand charges for peak usage periods.
Increased efficiency
Combined heat and power (CHP) systems reuse waste thermal energy for
heating or cooling. Overall efficiency reaches over 80% compared to 30-45% for
conventional grid power.
Added resiliency
With the ability to disconnect from the grid and operate independently, microgrids
provide backup electricity even during prolonged outages.
Sustainability benefits
Systems like solar arrays, fuel cells, wind turbines, and microturbines emit little or
no greenhouse gasses thereby supporting environmental goals.
Secure Backup Power Systems
In addition to on-site power, your organization must invest in reliable standby
generators. These systems automatically restore electricity within seconds or
minutes if normal supply gets disrupted. Diesel generators used to be the only
option, but now advanced alternatives exist including:
· Natural gas generators
· Battery storage systems
· Microturbines, etc.
Carefully determine the best emergency power solution for your facility
accounting for space, budget, noise, emissions, and scalability preferences. Also,
be sure to work with trusted vendors to install equipment properly sized for your
expected critical load.
Balance Costs and Risk Tolerance
Pursuing energy resilience requires weighing expenses against risk exposure.
Before investing, clearly determine your tolerance for power disruption. Besides,
assess the true financial, operational, and reputational impacts you could incur.
Quantifying potential losses better informs decisions about appropriate resilience
strategies. The actual costs of power failure often far exceed initial expectations
after factoring in all direct and indirect impacts.
While at it, it’s also important to realize that power security threats constantly
evolve. As your business changes over time, reevaluate energy needs and
exposure. A facility with minimal power demands today may take on much more
critical loads in the future requiring extra resilience measures. Maintain this
outside-in perspective to ensure your energy assurance keeps pace.
Start Small then Scale Up Strategies
Transitioning fully to on-site generation and microgrids constitutes a major capital
project. But businesses need not implement comprehensive resilience solutions
immediately. Taking incremental steps allows investing at a measured cadence
while still rapidly reducing grid dependence.
Many businesses start simply with battery storage installations or single backup
generators. As leaders gain confidence in new technologies and operational
models, companies can then scale resilience efforts.
Staged implementation better aligns with typical budget cycles as well. Modular
power systems allow expanding capacity over time or relocating equipment as
needs shift. With careful planning, even small initial investments can help create
long-term value.
Adopt a Holistic Perspective on Resilience
When evaluating and investing in energy resilience, avoid narrowly focusing on
electricity. Instead, apply a systematic lens accounting for interdependencies
between electricity and other critical infrastructures like natural gas, water, and
telecommunications.
Ensuring energy resilience requires assessing your entire supply chain. Identify
single points of failure that could leave your business stranded. Also, develop
contingency plans to access alternative sources or providers as warranted to
prevent catastrophic disruptions.
This way, you can uncover far more robust solutions by tackling resilience
challenges holistically rather than through siloed quick fixes.
Conclusion
Given growing uncertainty on the grid, no business can afford complacency
about energy assurance. Power failures freeze operations, damage delicate
equipment, and cause lasting financial impacts. Events once considered rare are
now occurring more frequently and testing organizational resilience.
Safeguard your enterprise by taking proactive control of your energy. Transition
to on-site generation, backup generators and ultimately microgrids to circumvent
grid volatility.
While bolstering resilience requires significant investment, avoided outage costs
and new revenue opportunities will help to offset projects over the long run. So
don’t hesitate to secure this fundamental operational foundation now before
disaster strikes.