Power outages can severely affect your business operations. Learn what you should do to reduce the negative effects on your business with WACOMM.  

Australians are in power! The country used more than 6,000 petajoules of electricity in 2019 and 2020. 

Yet this amount of electricity puts strains on Australia’s electric system and creates outages. If you want to keep your business running, you need to prepare for an outage and respond to it in the right way. 

How should you prepare for a business power outage? What can a commercial electrical company do for you? How can you navigate through a brownout or use a generator? 

Answer these questions and you can master what to do during an outage. Here is your quick guide. 

Prepare for a Business Power Outage 

The more you prepare for a power outage, the better you can perform during a blackout. You should have batteries, cell phones, and flashlights in a cabinet or kit near major workstations. Your building should be connected to a generator and/or solar panels you can use for power. 

Ask your company’s safety officer to assess your risk for a power outage. You can take steps like trimming branches over your power lines, so they don’t fall and cut off your power supply. 

Your safety systems should always remain powered, regardless of what type of emergency you have. You should buy exit signs, fire sprinklers, and smoke alarms that will operate with batteries.  

Your company should invest in a Perth commercial electrician. Old systems are more likely to suffer from outages than new and maintained ones. Electricians should inspect your emergency lights, safety switches, and wiring. 

Assess the Situation 

As soon as a blackout occurs, you should contact electrical services. Even if the blackout resolves itself, you should have an electrician come in and figure out what happened. 

In the meantime, you should investigate what is going on. Look at your window and see if your power line has fallen. If it has, you should report it to your electric company and keep people away from it. 

You can contact your other employees and see if you have power anywhere else in the building. You should also check if neighbouring buildings have power. 

If rooms in your facility or neighbouring facilities have power, you should check your breakers. They have tripped and cut off your supply. 

A natural disaster or fire may disable your electricity. You should evacuate the building and take care of your employees if you feel the conditions are threatening. 

Use Hotspots to Complete Your Operations 

Personal wireless hotspots can help you finish tasks that require internet access. You can upload documents onto a cloud server, write messages to associates and clients, and make appointments. 

You should not spend too much time on your hotspots because the power in your devices is limited. Once you do what you need to do, you should give access to your hotspot to someone else. 

Protect Your Equipment from Surges 

Power surges are spikes in the voltage that your appliances are receiving. Your equipment can malfunction if the voltage changes too rapidly, including right after a power outage. 

You should unplug pieces of equipment like televisions and computers, so they won’t get damaged. Save your files first and then turn them off and unplug them from the wall. 

You should also turn off the breakers that are attached to large items like HVAC units and water heaters. When power gets restored, your devices won’t overload the electric grid and delay restoration efforts. 

Do not touch your cold storage equipment, including refrigerators. Your equipment has insulating materials that can keep the cold from escaping. Contact a Perth commercial electrician for assistance. 

Respond to Brownouts 

A brownout is a reduction in your power supply. Though you have a small amount of power you can use for work, your appliances may not operate correctly. 

You should respond to a brownout similarly to a blackout. You should call your electric service company, then you should power down non-essential appliances. You may want to unplug certain appliances from outlets, so your remaining supply goes to important devices.  

Some power companies schedule brownouts so their systems are not overwhelmed on high-demand days. These days often occur during the summer when businesses and homes run cooling units. Look at your company’s schedule and adjust your operations before a brownout.  

Load shedding occurs when power companies cut off power to groups of customers to avoid overloading the system. Your company may be cut off from power for an hour or so until demand drops. You can scale back your operations until you get power and can restart safely. 

Be Careful with Generators and Batteries 

You may be able to continue working with power from a generator. However, you should not bring a generator into your business because most generators produce carbon monoxide. 

Do not plug your generator directly into your power outlet. This can cause a surge of power that can shock a utility worker. You should also keep your device dry to avoid electric shocks. 

Batteries can also allow you to continue working, but they can drain quickly. Use them to complete your most essential operations and then wait for your power to be restored. 

Rely on Commercial Electrical Services 

A power outage can be a headache. You should get supplies like batteries and generators that you can use to maintain your operations. 

As soon as an outage occurs, you should call commercial electrical services. Tell them what the situation is and if your neighbours have lost power as well. 

While they are trying to resolve the outage, you should turn your appliances off. Use internet hotspots to finish your tasks and upload documents and evacuate your facility if you’re feeling unsafe. Don’t hesitate to give electrical services a call. WACOMM serves the Perth area.  Request a quote from your Perth commercial electricians today.