|
 2003
was a year when major wide-area power outages truly brought home
to businesses just how dependent they are on a resource which seems
to be becoming less reliable.
East Coast US; much of Italy; SE England; and
Sweden and Denmark all saw power outages which severely impacted
businesses in the area, and although many jumped to the immediate
conclusion that the events were terror related, in fact the outages
were caused by more prosaic, but ultimately more threatening, reasons
in the long term.
The outages were down to a variety of causes:
a) Human error
b) Inadequate investment
c) Overloading an old supply system
d) Poor maintenance
e) Insufficient numbers of staff for emergency repair teams
f) Lack of adequate failover systems.
The bad news is that none of these issues have
gone away. In fact many are areas which will continue to get worse
unless supply companies are forced to grab the bull by the horns.
The probability is that during 2004 we will see further outages.
Contributory factors include:
a) Ever increasing demand putting greater and
greater pressure on already inadequate supply systems;
b) Each year that goes by with inadequate investment means another
year when aging equipment undergoes further deterioration;
c) Pressure on profits – extra costs imposed on supply companies
to meet new corporate governance legislation and security requirements
means additional pressure on profits, which in turn will lead to
less investment in systems and in people. Most Western utility companies
are now denationalized, so profits are the imperative.
d) Changing weather patterns – it is a fact that storms and
weather extremes are becoming more prevalent. The likelihood of
above ground power supply lines being impacted by bad weather is
therefore increasing.
What can businesses do? The first stage is
to recognize the issue and its importance: power is the ultimate
dependency for the modern business because almost every business
system is at some stage reliant on a clean supply.
Businesses can do two main things:
1) Lobby
Governments and utilities respond to lobbying, especially if this
is done by businesses with political clout. Even so, the many voices
of smaller businesses will be heard if the power supply problem
is raised often enough and stridently. What business needs to see
are credible long term investment plans in critical infrastructure
and recognition by governments that it can not wash its hands of
responsibility for the issue. Stronger and more hands-on regulation
may be required.
2) Prepare
There is no excuse for businesses to be unprepared for power outages.
UPS systems are a ubiquitous requirement and generators are a must
for many businesses. However, it may be necessary to take a look
at the length of time your business continuity plan presumes that
power will be unavailable for. The possibility of outages lasting
a week or more is a real possibility. Could your plan cope? Would
you need additional generation capabilities for such a long period?
Would your fuel supplies last? In the long term, for the very largest
businesses, will private power plants be the best solution, taking
the control of the risk directly into the hands of the business?
Finally, we can’t ignore the terrorist
dimension. There may have been no evidence of terrorist activity
behind last year’s events but there is no doubt that terror
groups will have noted the chaos caused by the outages and how easily
problems were propagated around supply networks. If terrorists had
no plans previously to disrupt power networks, they will have now.
By David Honour – editor, Continuity
Central.
•Date:
6th January 2004 •Region: Worldwide •Type:
Article •Topic: Power
management
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