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Is Your Business Prepared for a Winter Power Outage?

Even Texas Winters Require Disaster Planning

As a long-time Central Texas resident, I know all too well that if you ignore winter weather here, you’re doing so at your own peril. Sure, most years our cold season is relatively mild – but not always. You don’t even have to look very far into the past for a reminder of how quickly the weather can shift from moderate to dangerous: back in February of 2021, a winter power outage that lasted for days impacted more than 4.5 million businesses and residences.

Hopefully, nothing approaching that level of concern will happen this year, but even mild power issues can cause huge problems for businesses. A short-term outage can result in data loss, disrupt your operations, and cause customers to lose trust in you.

How can you prepare your business to protect against that possibility? It starts with understanding the most common winter issues we face in our area.

While the climate may be changing, here in Central Texas we still don’t really have to worry about heavy snow or ice storms except in extremely rare circumstances. However, our winters do come with certain regular risks. 

  • Storms that bring down power lines
  • High winds that cause structural damage to our power infrastructure
  • Overburdened energy grids during peak heating periods

So, what specific things can you do to ensure your business is ready?

Do a Risk Assessment

How at-risk you are will depend on how much your business relies on power. Ask yourself these questions:

  • How will a power outage affect daily operations?
  • Which systems are mission-critical and must remain functional?
  • What are the potential financial losses from a prolonged outage?

Conducting a thorough risk assessment will tell you what steps you need to take to minimize any downtime that might occur.

Invest in Backup Power Solutions

Generators and Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) systems are your first line of defense against outages. How exactly does each thing work?

Generators. You probably have at least a basic understanding of how backup generators work. Generators can make sure that your business continues to have power even if the main power grid goes down. For the best results, you’ll want to ensure your generators are the right size to support your operational needs – and you should test them regularly.

UPS Systems. The best way to think of an Uninterruptible Power Supply system is to imagine a combination of an industrial surge protector and an incredibly powerful battery that stores energy until you need it. One of the biggest differences between a backup generator and a UPS is that “u” for Uninterruptible – the idea is that your systems will instantaneously switch over to battery power if there is an interruption in your main power supply. With generators, there is often at least some kind of delay.

UPS systems do two main things:

  1. They provide you with temporary power so that you can keep critical devices like servers, network hardware, and essential computers running.
  2. They keep you safe against spikes in voltage and other possible electrical issues by “conditioning” incoming power.

Implement Data Protection Measures

Data loss is one of the most significant risks you face during an outage. Here are some things you can do to protect your data:

Set up automated cloud backups. This ensures real-time data replication.

Use redundant storage solutions. This helps you safeguard against hardware failures by maintaining your data in multiple locations.

Put a Remote Work System in Place

A power outage at your physical location doesn’t have to halt operations entirely if your team can continue working remotely. Equip them with the tools they need, such as:

  • Secure Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)
  • Cloud-based collaboration tools
  • Remote desktop access to essential systems

Create a Communication Plan

Transparency is key during an outage. Make sure you have a plan in place to keep everyone on the same page. 

You’ll want to be able to inform employees of the outage and any changes to workflows, provide customers with alternate contact methods, and have a system in place that allows you to give regular updates to your workforce and customers about delays, changes to procedures, and so on. 

You Don’t Have to Tackle Winter Power Outages All on Your Own

Making sure your business is prepared for a winter power outage is a lot easier with a knowledgeable guide by your side. Sageplan has helped countless small businesses develop a comprehensive business continuity plan to help ensure that company information stays safe and operations can continue in a hybrid/remote environment during outages.

Don’t wait until a power outage happens. The first step in safeguarding your operations from a winter power outage is to set up a free consultation with us.