Power outages can be devastating events that last anywhere from a few hours to days on end. But you don’t have to accept your fate as an idle business. With a power outage emergency response plan, you can mitigate these disruptions and keep your organization moving.
Emergency Response Plan Template Use this template to build a comprehensive emergency response plan to keep your employees safe.
Every year, the U.S. electrical grid experiences thousands of interruptions that cut off service to customers, including many businesses that rely on the grid to continue operations. From financial losses and productivity gaps to compromised customer trust, the impact of an unexpected power outage can be severe. In fact, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. businesses lose billions of dollars a year due to electric power outages. And while 44% of these are still due to environmental effects like weather, according to Ready.gov, we’ve seen a recent increase in unpredictable domestic terror attacks on power infrastructure, making it crucial for safety leaders to prioritize power outage preparedness.
You won’t get very far if you wait until the lights go out to start preparing for a power outage; mitigating a power outage requires planning ahead, making a plan, gathering the resources, and knowing when to activate it all. But not to worry, here’s what you need to do to make sure that your organization doesn’t shut down when the grid does.
The best way to start preparing for a power outage is to develop a power outage emergency response plan. Similar to a crisis management plan, this document will help you determine who to enlist, what their responsibilities should be, the resources they’ll need, and more. In your plan, include the following steps.
Before preparing a response strategy, you must understand the threats you might encounter. The exercise best suited to understanding the range of risks your business faces is called a risk assessment, AKA a business threat assessment. It is an indispensable framework for evaluating risks in any part of a business, not just those related to power outages. But we’ll just be focusing on power outages today.
A power outage is a unique threat in that it has variable causes. Therefore, it’s important to assess the risks on two levels:
Once you’ve identified the potential threats, you can then rate them according to their relative severity and likelihood. Then you can plot them on a “threat matrix” grid to give you an easy visual representation of your threat landscape, guiding your preparedness efforts. For example, you’ll likely want to prioritize preparation for threats that are both highly likely to occur and with high impact on your business.
As you might imagine, one organization’s risks of power outage may vary significantly from another organization’s because of business structure, the vulnerability of a particular area’s power grid to weather disruptions, or even its susceptibility to targeted attacks on power delivery systems. The best way to keep all this information straight is to use a threat assessment template to ensure that you think of everything.
The most essential part of emergency management is communication. After all, if you can’t communicate, there may be people who remain in the dark about the outage—especially if you have distributed employees and vendors or customers who might also be impacted. And you can’t communicate if you don’t know how to reach the right people, so dedicate a section of your response plan to emergency communication. Ensure you have multiple ways of reaching your employees, from phone calls and text messages to email and mobile app notifications. Remember to include phone numbers for local resources like the police, fire department, EMS, and local news to help you stay connected and supported by your community.
Use this template to build a comprehensive emergency response plan.Creating an emergency response team is vital to efficiently handle a blackout. Begin by appointing a designated leader who will oversee the implementation of the plan. This leader should possess strong decision-making skills and the ability to remain calm under pressure. Additionally, identify key roles and responsibilities within the team, such as personnel responsible for communication, safety, equipment, and facilities. The exact roles your company might activate during a power outage emergency response plan may differ, but these are the most common:
Power outages are fundamentally a question of resources and infrastructure. In order to plan for outages effectively, you must know what alternative resources you already have on hand. Questions to ask yourself include:
Pro Tip: Utility companies recommend not only preparing for power outages, but also for extreme temperatures that can accompany them. Teach heat safety and cold weather safety in tandem with power outage preparedness.
Now comes the fun part: devising the strategy you’ll use to respond to power outages. This can be broken down into a few sub-steps:
1. Prepare a comprehensive checklist of essential steps
Outline the specific tasks and procedures required to mitigate the impact of a power outage on your business. Include actions such as identifying critical equipment, establishing emergency power sources, and implementing communication protocols.
2. Outline procedures for immediate response and prioritization
Define the steps to be taken immediately after a power outage occurs. This may involve shutting down non-essential systems or those that would automatically restart upon receiving power, securing sensitive data, and activating backup power sources.
3. Address employee safety and evacuation protocols
Develop protocols to ensure the safety and well-being of your employees during a power outage. Establish evacuation procedures, designate assembly areas, and provide training in emergency response protocols, especially related to public safety issues like avoiding downed power lines. Plan to install battery-powered emergency lighting to allow for safer navigation in the dark and ensure your first aid training regimen is up to date. Test CO meters to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning. Ensure that fire protection measures like extinguishers and sprinklers are in working order, as some of the issues that cause power outages can also start fires, like shorted electrical circuits.
4. Establish protocols for backup power and generator usage
Determine the capacity and requirements for backup power sources, such as generators. Create guidelines for their installation, operation, and maintenance.
5. Devise a communication strategy
Establish a communication strategy to keep employees, customers, and stakeholders informed during power outages. Utilize multiple channels, such as text messages, emails, and social media, to relay updates and instructions. You can even use your emergency response plan to write out message templates, saving time during an emergency.
6. Document the plan and ensure it’s accessible
Create a detailed document that includes all aspects of your power outage emergency response plan. Make sure it is easily accessible to all relevant parties, both digitally and in physical form. You’ll need to make sure safety leaders, department heads, and other company stakeholders have a copy of this plan and have a chance to sign off on it.
Developing a plan is only the first step. Regular emergency drills and simulations are essential to test the effectiveness of the response plan. Conduct these exercises to identify any gaps or areas for improvement. Additionally, train designated employees in their roles and responsibilities on the emergency response team. This training will ensure a smooth plan execution during actual power outage situations. Regularly review and update the plan based on lessons learned from drills and real-world events.
Pro Tip: A great low-cost way to practice your power outage emergency response is with tabletop exercises.
After any short or extended power outage, swift recovery is essential to minimize further disruptions. Take the following steps:
Since power outages can occur unexpectedly, implementing year-round power emergency preparedness measures is crucial. Consider the following actions:
On the flip side, AlertMedia customers have reported that keeping in touch with remote employees during power outages can be challenging without the proper tools. Ensure you have an emergency mass notification system that can send multichannel notifications—that is, across multiple mediums, like voice call, text, email, desktop alerts, and more.
It doesn’t make sense (or money) to make the same mistake twice. Power outages provide valuable lessons that can inform future preparedness efforts. Here’s how you make sure each power emergency you face is less impactful than the last:
In today’s unpredictable world, power outages pose significant risks to businesses. By prioritizing preparedness and developing a comprehensive power outage emergency response plan, companies can minimize disruptions, protect their employees, and maintain essential operations. Implementing proactive strategies, conducting regular drills, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement will ensure your business is ready to handle power outages effectively and emerge stronger from such events.
