Emergency plan for blackouts

Blackout Emergency Planning

"Plan for the difficult while it is still easy."

Lao Tzu – Chinese philosopher 

Effective emergency planning for such a scenario doesn't require a blackout expert, but rather an organization with experience in developing emergency, emergency operation, and restart plans.

Blackout Scenario – More Relevant Than Ever

On January 8, 2021, Europe, and Austria as part of the European power grid, once again narrowly escaped this scenario. Shortly after 2:00 p.m., a major disturbance originating in Southeast Europe led to a critical drop in frequency, resulting in the disruption of the European synchronous grid.

Thanks to the activation of automatic protection mechanisms, coordination among grid operators for the short-term activation of power plants – including some in Austria – and the targeted shutdown of consumers in France, the blackout was averted and the system stabilized. Network operators and experts have been pointing to the vulnerability of the electricity system for years.

Detecting a Blackout – Temporal Components

Detecting a blackout will be very simple and relatively easy to distinguish from a short-term, regional power outage. Depending on the time and location, a blackout will present a multitude of indicators simultaneously.

Immediate perceptions (outages, traffic lights, lighting, elevators, etc.)

Social media, network posts from different regions, or outages

Either internet outages or reports from different regions, or outages

Outage of mobile communication, or possibly a related failure of electronic alerting systems

Outage of private radio stations

Public broadcasting services as part of their statutory mandate

Regarding the time component, several phases must be considered for emergency planning:

The first few hours: Limited availability of resources depending on the organization's level of preparation (e.g., stockpiling, UPS, fuel levels, chaos or standstill)

The first day: Recognition of the extent, complete collapse of communication structures or infrastructure areas not covered by UPS, establishment of emergency structures, emergency operation, communication islands, etc.

Several days/weeks: Emergency power supply, restarting individual infrastructure areas, recovery measures

We would consider the end of a blackout to be the point at which the Critical systems across the board must function reasonably stably again for an extended period (several days).

Definition of a Blackout, Causes, Triggers, and Consequences

By definition, a blackout is a sudden, widespread (covering large parts of Europe) and prolonged (over 12 hours) power and infrastructure outage. This leads to a kind of "chain reaction" in all other critical infrastructures. A multitude of factors and events can be considered as triggers. Natural events (keyword: climate change), human error (e.g., switching operations), technical failure (e.g., obsolescence, lack of maintenance of systems), intentional acts (e.g., terrorist actions, cyberattacks), but also organizational deficiencies or system failure due to unmanageable complexity can trigger a blackout scenario.

Prolonged cold spells or heat waves in summer increase the challenges and the risk. However, given the appropriate conditions, the scenario can occur at any time. The Austrian Armed Forces (ÖBH) consider a blackout a highly probable scenario, expected within the next five years.

The consequences of a blackout are far-reaching. In a chain reaction, the power outage immediately affects all infrastructure. A video from Der Spiegel illustrates the impact: Impact of a Blackout Scenario

Blackout Emergency Planning

"Plan for the difficult while it is still easy."

Lao Tzu – Chinese philosopher

Effective emergency planning for such a scenario doesn't require a blackout expert, but rather an organization with experience in developing emergency, emergency operations, and recovery plans.

This topic should be comprehensively addressed and considered within the framework of an ISO 22301-compliant Business Continuity Management (BCM) process and extends far beyond stockpiling and technical solutions (e.g., UPS systems).

Business Continuity Management

Risk and business impact analyses form the foundation for contingency measures (e.g., stockpiling, technical measures such as UPS systems, etc.), emergency planning, crisis management, and recovery planning.

Before a company takes precautions and plans, it must know its obligations and which processes must function even in the event of a blackout. The order in which individual systems are restarted can also be crucial for recovery. However, just because the power is restored (even if only temporarily) does not mean that systems can be kept running stably.

Simple checklists are preferable to multi-page blackout emergency plans created in Word.

BC Consulting GmbH – bcNAVIGATOR

BC Consulting brings years of experience and numerous references to the creation of blackout emergency plans. In particular, using the bcNAVIGATOR software, we can support you in establishing and maintaining an ISO 22301-compliant Business Continuity Management (BCM) system. Details about bcNAVIGATOR can be found here: bcNAVIGATOR

In the event of a blackout, it is advisable to keep the relevant documents (e.g., restart plans) and crisis management documents in paper form as checklists.