One in three UK businesses have experienced electricity outages over the last year according to a new study, highlighting the importance of ensuring energy resilience on-site.
The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) surveyed over 1,000 firms about their views on infrastructure and risk.
More than a quarter (27 per cent) of respondents said they expected their dependence on electricity to increase in the years ahead, despite the troubling finding that 33 per cent had already experienced power blackouts in the last 12 months.
By contrast, water and gas outages have affected just 8 per cent and 2 per cent of businesses respectively.
Blackout reminder
Earlier this year nearly nine million people were left without power across the country - including around 26,000 properties in the North West - when a gas power station and a large offshore wind farm failed at the same time.
With the transition to a low carbon energy grid dominated by intermittent renewable sources like wind and solar, the occurrence of major imbalances between electricity supply and demand is expected to increase.
While National Grid and the wider energy industry are taking action to mitigate these imbalances in future, experts believe businesses are failing to put their own risk reduction plans in place.
Enabling a zero carbon future
Businesses also have a role to play in helping the electricity network to become more responsive and flexible.
Will Gardiner, chief executive of Drax Group, which was involved in the research, commented: “Electricity demand is expected to rise as the economy digitises and sectors such as heating and transportation decarbonise. With weather-dependent wind and solar set to generate more power than ever we’re going to need more fast-acting and flexible electricity generation to maintain a reliable grid.
“Businesses across Britain can play their part too by installing on-site batteries, switching their fleets to electric vehicles, conducting energy audits, buying 100 per cent renewable power and taking up smart meters – enabling a zero carbon, lower cost energy future.”
