Eaton Power Quality’s latest Blackout Tracker report has shown that the South East of England suffered more power blackouts than any other region in the UK in 2011.
The annual report, which is now available via www.eaton.com/blackoutUK, uses reported power outage information from news services, newspapers, websites and personal accounts to analyse the impact of power outages in the UK. The analysis shows that the South East of England experienced more than 20% of the total number of power outages in the UK in 2011. This is an increase from 2010 when it was also the worst affected region but accounted for 16% of the total number of outages in the UK.
According to Eaton’s research, power outages in the UK have a major impact on businesses and can cause significant productivity and financial losses each time they occur. Over 33% of companies take more than a day to recover and monetary losses range between £12,676 and £316,900. The research also found that 90% of companies that experience a computer disaster and don’t have a survival plan go out of business within 18 months and 15% of businesses experiencing power outages lose over £1.2m.
As Eaton’s Blackout Tracker report suggests, the impact of many of these outages can be drastically reduced. For example, of the 52 power outages in the South East of England in 2011, one of the most serious was caused by a fault in an electrical supply station which affected 50,000 people in the Portsmouth area. Having the correct power protection in place can ensure outages like this have the minimum impact possible.
Not all power outages are preventable or predictable though. Eaton’s Blackout Tracker report includes examples of unusual causes of outages such as copper thieves in Yorkshire and the Humber bringing down three sections of overhead power lines and stealing conductors, causing a power outage for 238 people. And, in Scotland, a flock of misguided geese flew into power lines cutting power for 544 people.
According to Eaton’s Paul Norgate, “The report demonstrates that the best way for businesses to protect themselves is to develop a power protection plan which will help mitigate against the significant losses a power outage can bring. UPSs play a key role in this plan because they effectively offer a form of insurance against power failures. However, like any hardware, it is important to ensure that the specification of the product you use is up to date and therefore ready to cope with the challenges posed by both today’s, and tomorrow’s, potential outages.”
