If you own a small business, you need to prepare for power outages. The power can go out for a number of reasons in any industry and in all weather. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the average cost of power outages for all American businesses is $150 billion per year.¹

There are many ways a power outage can hurt a business. The most notable problem is that businesses shut down and employees are unable to work. When power is restored, time is needed to turn everything back on and make sure all equipment is working properly. In addition to employees being unable to work, loss of revenue, decrease in customer satisfaction, and a blow to your reputation can also have an impact on your business.
 
Of course, one way you can protect your business from a power outage is with a standby generator. A standby unit will switch on immediately when the power goes out. They run on natural gas, propane, or diesel.

A Large Scale Example

You might expect a small “mom and pop shop” to have a difficult time recovering from a power outage. But what about an airport and airline? On December 17^th, 2017, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport experienced a sudden power outage for 11 hours. It took them all of Sunday and Monday to recover, cancelling 1400 flights. Delta worked hard to get their customers to their destinations on time. They were able to accommodate all of them on alternate flights. In comparison, it took them a week to recover from another power outage back in April of 2017. 
 
So what made the difference this time? The preventative measures the airline took. These include creating an irregular operations team to coordinate the response to power disrupting events. They also adjusted crew and aircraft placement around its network as a whole to handle unexpected situations more easily. Because the airline the airport worked with most was highly responsive, they were able to return to normal operations very quickly.

_{1."The Smart Grid: An Introduction." U.S. Department of Energy.}