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About Us News How to Power Through a Winter Power Outage

How to Power Through a Winter Power Outage

In cold winter months, businesses can face the devastating effects of power outages as temperatures plummet. Power loss may begin as a frustrating inconvenience but can quickly become a devastating setback without comprehensive contingency plans in place.

While the lights are still on, you can take steps today to learn about this cold-weather threat — including its key impacts and causes — and prepare to power your property through a winter outage this season with this power outage preparation guide.

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How Do Winter Power Outages Impact Commercial Buildings?

When the power goes out during freezing temperatures, the disruption to your business can be more drastic than you may expect. While creating backup plans for a power outage this winter, keep the following critical effects in mind so you can mitigate their impacts.

  • Lost Revenue - Without a contingency plan to follow, power disruptions can halt business operations and lead to lost revenue if you can no longer provide your services. Spoiled inventory or damaged goods from a lack of temperature regulation can result in financial losses and impact your bottom line.
  • Client Impact - Your clients can also feel the impact of interrupted services. If you operate an apartment or nursing home, the electrical downtime can harm your residents’ well-being. Interrupted service can even result in reputational damage.
  • Safety Risks - Commercial properties without power or emergency lighting can lead to dangerous environments for employees, hazardous cold temperatures and safety concerns from security systems going offline.
  • Supply Chain Disruption - The ripple effects of a community-wide outage can result in supply chain disruptions even after power is restored. If your business distributes goods to others, even a few hours without electricity can have long-range impacts on your business and customers.
  • Equipment Damage and Data Loss - After outages, power surges can damage plugged-in equipment. Power suddenly returning to unprotected electronics can mean losing data on critical systems like computers. Additionally, without heat, temperatures can plummet in your building and increase the risk of pipes freezing and bursting.

What Causes Winter Power Outages?

When preparing for cold weather outages, it is important to understand the causes of this disruption so you can identify the most relevant risk factors for your business. Some of the key reasons for winter power disruptions include:

  • Winter Storms - Snowstorms can bring high winds that topple trees onto power lines, crippling electricity distribution. 
  • Ice and Snow Accumulation - Extended cold temperatures and precipitation can lead to snow accumulation on tree branches, causing limbs to snap and fall on power lines. The accumulating ice or snow on the lines themselves can also cause power lines to break.
  • Increased Energy Demands - Severely cold weather can lead to higher energy usage by businesses and homeowners, placing greater demands on power grids and possibly overloading them.
  • Rolling Blackouts - Utility companies can cause rolling blackouts — strategic, planned outages designed to prevent total blackouts through energy conservation — which can result in power disruptions to your property. Proper planning for rolling blackouts can help you maximize uptime.
  • Other Damage to Energy Equipment - Wildlife like squirrels and birds can seek shelter in warm electrical equipment or otherwise interfere with the energy infrastructure enough to damage it. Additionally, motorists on icy roads can lose control of vehicles and crash into power poles, causing electrical disruptions.

Three Essential Steps for Powering Through Winter Outages

Armed with the knowledge of power outages’ critical impacts and relevant causes, you can turn your attention to the following three steps for preparing for this type of disaster before things go dark.

  1. Make a Plan

Start by analyzing your critical business needs and identifying how a power outage may impact these areas. With your team, talk through key risks to your business and clients and the response that would be needed if the power were to go out for an hour, a day, a week — or even just a minute. 

Knowing your key risks, focus on what is in your control and how you can mitigate power disruption risks while prioritizing the safety of your staff, clients and residents. Disaster planning is important in all industries but some, like public schools, may face legal requirements to have emergency plans. 

Look at setting up protocols for how you and your team will react, training your employees and obtaining key resources and partners to assist with business continuity. Additionally, understand the key assets your business would need to keep operations flowing after a disaster

  2. Start Implementing Your Plan in Advance

Begin setting your contingency plans in motion well before cold weather threatens your electricity and heating. If you need to educate staff on response during a power outage, look at implementing the training and ensuring they have the resources to properly react.

Start securing solutions to recover power during an outage. This likely includes purchasing portable generators and backup fuel to stay operational. Make sure to prioritize generator safety and ongoing maintenance if you are using this equipment. You may also need to source temporary power solutions for businesses.

Your facility may require emergency lighting installation to provide essential light to the building post-outage. Back up critical data on computers to ensure your business does not lose essential electronic information. Invest in surge protectors as well to help prevent data loss from occurring. 

Partnering in advance with a company like Cotton Logistics can bring you rapid, all-in-one access to infrastructure solutions like mobile generators, temporary facilities and fuel in emergencies and day-to-day needs. For total recovery solutions, Cotton Logistics can power your operations with proven, trusted support services.

  3. Communicate During (and After) the Outage

If the power shuts off, prioritize safety and communication during the outage. Ensure that employees, tenants, patients and/or clients in your building are safe. Follow your predefined protocols and communicate with employees to follow the contingency plans. 

The power outage may last for minutes or days. If service to customers or key stakeholders is considerably impacted, attempt to inform them of the delays. Prevent reputational damage by communicating and demonstrating your diligent steps to recovery, all based on your prior planning. If needed, communicate with your business’ utility company for status updates and situational awareness.

After power is restored and operations return to normal, regroup with your team that devised the original contingency plans for time to talk through the outage. How did your plan fare in reality? What went well and what could be improved? Holding a post-outage debriefing session can help improve and refine your response for the next outage.

Cotton Logistics Can Help You Power Through

If your business is overwhelmed by pre-outage preparation or you need a trusted partner for total support services, Cotton Logistics stands ready to power your property through winter’s worst. 

Partnering with Cotton brings you rapid access to commercial-grade generators for your facility to keep business operational. Cotton’s temporary facilities, mobile command trailers and more can ensure you can stay focused on servicing your clients and caring for your community. With proven experience providing solutions in power loss situations, Cotton’s teams have the knowledge and resources for your outage recovery.

By preparing today with these winter power outage tips and partnering with Cotton Logistics, you can head into the coldest temperatures confident in your plan and business continuity. For immediate help, call us 24/7 at 877-427-2947 or contact us online.