Every region suffers from its fair share of catastrophes—be it wildfires in the West, hurricanes in the gulf, or tornadoes along the central plains. And if you’ve ever lived through an ice storm, an earthquake, or tropical storm, you know that one of the first things to go is the power; which is why we’re all supposed to be stocked up on candles and flashlights. But if you’re part of the commercial sector, then odds are your backup plan includes more than some batteries and bottled water. You’d think so anyway, but the answers of 451 small business owners indicate otherwise.
According to a 2008 survey of those 451 small business owners—conducted by Emerson Network Power (ENP)—only 39% have backup power systems capable of supplying electricity for lighting, computers, and employee tasks. (http://www.emerson.com/smallbusiness/) ENP’s survey also showed that 79% of respondents had experienced at least one power failure during 2007, and almost one third (29%) had experienced three or more power failures. Additionally, 42% of respondents of the ENP survey admitted that they had been forced to close their businesses as a result of a power failure. Add to those numbers the stats from another study, this one conducted by the DOE, that indicates businesses bear the brunt—98%—of the 80 billion per year lost as a result of power outages, and it’s easy to see that power-losses translate into a significant cost of business.
Some other interesting facts gleaned from the ENP survey:
56% of the respondents believe that backup power systems could give them a competitive advantage.
More than one-third (38%) of those surveyed who experienced outages in 2007 said more of them occurred in the summer months.
24% of respondents experienced more outages in the winter.
What I found even more interesting was the disconnect between perception and reality revealed by the ENP survey. A majority of the respondents—54%—stated that US businesses experience fewer outages than many other developed nations, but the numbers show an entirely different reality. Based on a study conducted by the Electric Power Research Institute (http://my.epri.com/portal/server.pt), the average American experiences a power loss of 214 minutes per year, with a possibility of an outage occurring every nine months. In comparison, the UK’s average is 70 minutes per year, and France goes even lower, with 53 minutes per year. But Japan trumps us all, with a six-minute-per-year average and the possibility of a Japanese citizen experiencing a power outage reduced to once every 20 years.
So what do you think? Are the misconceptions about power outages the reason that a majority of small businesses do not have adequate backup power systems? Or is cost a bigger culprit? And if we determine that backup power is important, not just to individual businesses but to the overall economic health (remember that $80 billion) of the country, how do we encourage a more proactive stance when it comes to emergency backup systems?