Power Blackout Risks

 figure 9: risk management steps incl. examples 
risk identification
risk evaluation
risk reduction
risk control
no.
weak point
cause
amount of loss
probability of 
occurrence
measure 
effectiveness
priority costs
responsibility
1.
Power supply 
infrastructure of 
the company
Age over 
60 years
Power outage
of facility and 
production 
estimate:
EUR 20 m a day
Twice a year
Replacement by 
new equipment 
and machines 
including 
maintenance 
program
Prevention of 
power outage
Prio 1
EUR 15 m
one off costs
CEO
2.
Blackout risk of 
main suppliers 
due to depend-
ency of public 
power supply
Main 
suppliers 
without
own or 
emergency
power 
supply
Stop of single 
production line 
EUR 10 m loss
a year
Five times
a year
Main suppliers 
install own power 
supply
Prevention of 
production 
stop
Prio 1
EUR 5 m to 
8 m
CEO of main 
supplier
3.
Loss of public 
power grids due 
to wild fire
Wild fire 
caused by 
heat and 
drought
Power outage
of facility and 
production 
estimate:
EUR 20 m a day
Several times 
especially 
during the 
summer time 
Underground 
installation of the 
high voltage 
power lines and 
additional power 
backup
No exposure 
to loss for the 
power lines
Prio 2
Falls under 
responsibility 
of the power 
supplier
volunteer 
financing/ 
participation 
of the manu-
facturing 
company
CEO of public 
supply com- 
pany and CEO 
of manufactur-
ing company

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21
crobriefing on Power Blackout Risks
At the end of the threat analysis, the following key questions arise regarding business continuity management.
•
Are the critical functions and processes in the company defined? 
•
Does useful documentation exist concerning frequency, scale and causes of business interruptions? 
•
Do comprehensive disaster recovery plans exist where the necessary strategies, data and operating 
resources are laid down for business recovery? 
•
Are the IT and communication systems sufficiently protected, so that they can resume operation within
the required time following incidents? 
•
Are there plans which are tested and updated regularly by means of practice drills? 
description of business continuity planning (bcp) elements 
business continuity organisation 
concerns all divisions of the company and requires cooperation at all hierarchy levels. Only a clearly structured 
business continuity organisation can ensure that strategies are developed, established, maintained and properly 
implemented in an emergency. 
People involved in preparing and maintaining the business continuity plan need to be acquainted with the 
company’s infrastructure and processes and suited to the tasks in question. Responsibilities within the BC 
process as a whole need to be clearly defined at all times. 
The top position in the BC management should be held by a representative of the highest company level to 
ensure high strategic priority within the company. A crisis team could operate locally and objectively in the 
closest possible proximity to the emergency while emergency service teams were safeguarding the infrastructure 
and recovery teams were already starting with specific disaster recovery activities.