Summer’s here and that can only mean one thing: thunderstorms, rain and the potential for power outages. Now’s a great time to take a hard look at your business’ emergency response plan in the event of a power outage due to extreme weather. With a power outage comes a lot of downtime, loss of productivity and loss of revenue. Make sure your company is well prepared in the event you lose power, whether you’re in the construction, medical, food service or other type of critical industry.
Investing in a Backup Generator
Making sure your business can keep operating even when the lights go out is of paramount concern. Preparing for this eventuality involves purchasing or renting generators in Alberta. In your research, consider the best price, model, capacity and type to suit your industry, needs and budget.
What to Know About Your Building
Before an outage happens, you should know some basics about your business and building. Check out these tips:
- Prepare an emergency kit and store it in an easy-to-locate area.
- Prepare your employees: They should know what is expected of them if a power outage hits.
- Put a plan in place: Developing a preparedness plan detailing the operational tasks and responsibilities of your staff is critical. Consider what you’ll need for backup electrical generation and battery systems. Perform regular tests of your backup battery systems. Compile a list of emergency telephone numbers and keep it handy.
- Know your building and equipment: Know where your generator, fuse boxes, electric service entrance, portable lamps, flashlights, batteries and emergency lighting systems are located. Come up with a listing of equipment you must switch off during an outage. On the flip side, you’ll have to know how to reset them when power is restored. Contact all service providers (such as fire, phone and security) to learn how those systems should work in the event of an outage.
What Happens in an Outage
Staying calm by being prepared is essential. If you know your emergency plan backwards and forwards, you can set it into motion with no problems. Ask these questions:
- Is the problem limited to your building or electrical system? Check with nearby businesses.
- Did you report the outage with your utility company right away?
- Did you implement your preparedness plan quickly?
- Did you turn on your generator if it didn’t kick on automatically?
- Did you turn off all equipment and appliances? This will prevent damage to your equipment when power is eventually restored.
Power is Restored!
Once power is restored, don’t let safety go by the wayside. Assuming you have already contacted your utility company, give them plenty of time to check the overall system and repair damage to generating stations, transmission lines and sub-stations.
Next, turn on the most essential equipment. It’s best to wait a quarter hour before reconnecting other equipment, in order to overload the electrical system and cause more problems.
Contact RLN Energy
If you are on the hunt for reliable generators in Alberta that can handle your business needs during a power outage, contact us today at 780-991-8575 to find out about our rental generators.
