More Outages, Bigger Financial Losses, Higher Expectations

INTERACTIVE REPORT

More Outages,
Bigger Financial Losses, Higher Expectations

The State of Commercial & Industrial Power Reliability

What Happens When the Power Goes Out at a C&I Facility?

To find out, S&C Electric Company, in collaboration with Frost & Sullivan, surveyed 253 commercial and industrial companies with average yearly revenues of $2.8 billion.

Research results were analyzed across four regions of the United States and across five major C&I company categories: manufacturing, healthcare, education, small franchises, and retailers.

Key Takeaways

2021 Report:
What We Found

The research in “S&C’s 2021 State of Commercial & Industrial Power Reliability Report” represents an accurate pulse of the market for utility-related considerations across an important swath of the U.S. economy.

View Full Report

Reported Percentage of Monthly and Momentary Outages Doubled

Reported Percentage of Monthly and Momentary Outages Doubled

Many utilities don’t include outages under five minutes (momentary outages) in their standard reliability metric reporting. But these outages became more frequent compared to last year, as did power loss frequency.

40%

Companies that reported outages under five minutes as their most typical, up from 20% last year.

44%

Companies that lost power at least monthly, up from 21% last year.

40%

Companies that reported outages under five minutes as their most typical, up from 20% last year.

44%

Companies that lost power at least monthly, up from 21% last year.

“Power outages affect a healthcare organization equally, whether it is for a minute or for an hour.”

— Healthcare

More Outages = More $ Lost

More Outages
= More $ Lost

Regardless of outage duration, loss of power negatively impacts various areas of an organization—and those impacts can add up to big costs.

$100K+

The cost of a typical outage for 22% of companies.

$100K+

71%

$100K+

The cost of a typical outage for 22% of companies.

$1.2M+

Annual losses for those companies that lost $100,000 or more per monthly outage.

71%

$1.2M+

Annual losses for those companies that lost $100,000 or more per monthly outage.

34%

of companies lost $50,000 or more per short-duration outage occurring monthly.

34%

of companies lost $50,000 or more per short-duration outage occurring monthly.

34%

71%

of companies lost $50,000 or more per short-duration outage occurring monthly.

$100K+

The cost of a typical outage for 22% of companies.

$100K+

71%

$100K+

The cost of a typical outage for 22% of companies.

$1.2M+

Annual losses for those companies that lost $100,000 or more per monthly outage.

71%

$1.2M+

Annual losses for those companies that lost $100,000 or more per monthly outage.

34%

of companies lost $50,000 or more per short-duration outage occurring monthly.

34%

of companies lost $50,000 or more per short-duration outage occurring monthly.

34%

71%

of companies lost $50,000 or more per short-duration outage occurring monthly.

“Our production stops due to short-duration outages. It doesn’t matter whether the outage is short, it has an impact on the production and increases the downtime.”

— Manufacturing

Companies Are Tracking Outages and Their Costs

An outage-measuring system provides C&I companies quantifiable evidence of the impacts they cause—a powerful tool when approaching their utility for compensation.

58%

Companies that have a system or equipment in place to measure outages.

77%

Outage-measuring companies that have, or will have, outage-expense tracking capabilities.

58%

Companies that have a system or equipment in place to measure outages.

77%

58%

Outage-measuring companies that have, or will have, outage-expense tracking capabilities.

“We have a system to keep track of frequency and duration. We then analyze the records and assess the loss because of the outages.”

— Manufacturing

Customers Expect Better Reliability and Resilience

For many C&I companies, resilience improvements are just as important to them as improved reliability—and the quicker their power is restored, the better.

Customers Expect Better Reliability and Resilience

For many C&I companies, resilience improvements are just as important to them as improved reliability—and the quicker their power is restored, the better.

1 min.

1min.

It’s “very important” for power to be restored within this time, say 52% of companies.

1 min.

71%

It’s “very important” for power to be restored within this time, say 52% of companies.

The premium that 1 in 5 companies said they would pay for a 20% reduction of outages.

71%

The premium that 1 in 5 companies said they would pay for a 20% reduction of outages.

1 min.

1min.

It’s “very important” for power to be restored within this time, say 52% of companies.

1 min.

71%

It’s “very important” for power to be restored within this time, say 52% of companies.

The premium that 1 in 5 companies said they would pay for a 20% reduction of outages.

71%

The premium that 1 in 5 companies said they would pay for a 20% reduction of outages.

“That’s [utilities’] obligation to give me full service and bring back power as quickly as they can … so I can get back to business faster.”

— Retail/Small Franchise

View Survey Snapshot Infographic

View Voice of the Customer Infographic

2021 C&I Report Conclusion

“S&C’s 2021 State of Commercial & Industrial Power Reliability Report” continued to show that reliability has not improved for C&I companies overall.

The distribution of impacts that frequent outages caused were all about equal to C&I companies, to the extent that many believe there is a need to begin tracking outages and to sometimes seek compensation from their utilities.

Outage effects have also contributed to the great importance and value C&I companies place on improved reliability and resilience, provided they are given the opportunity to communicate that value to utilities before hope for improvements is lost.