As concerns around power blackouts continue to mount across industry due to the current myriad of challenges facing the UK’s electrical distribution networks, Aggreko has reported an increase of requests from companies looking to minimise risk.

This comes following the news of Kwasi Kwarteng, Secretary of State at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy holding an emergency summit with gas industry chiefs due to soaring market prices. The emergency power company is now advising businesses to review their current contingency and back-up energy plans.

Earlier reports of a fire taking out a key cable that ships electricity to the U.K. from France had already planted seeds of concern across industry. These were then compounded by issues around low wind speeds forcing regional energy markets to search for gas reserves.

Chris Rason, Managing Director at Aggreko said: “This concoction of issues is making winter blackouts seem much more of a reality this year, and therefore places UK businesses at significant risk. Not only could it cause added disruption to supply and production across UK industry, not to mention productivity dipping, losses experienced, and wastage increased, but the potential knock-on effects for the food and NHS supply chains are alarming to say the least.

“Companies wanting to implement a brand-new contingency plan can do so relatively quickly if access to site can be given. And, overall, it is much more cost effective to have a plan in place than run the risk of must costlier blackouts over an extended period.”

Longer term Aggreko is also working to help businesses accelerate moves to decentralised solutions to prevent future uncertainty surrounding the world’s energy crisis.

Chris adds: “Unfortunately, any potential outages could send energy prices even higher, exacerbating worries around inflation and materials shortage costs. While we cannot control gas shortages, high prices and blackouts, we can help to mitigate the risks that these serious market forces can have on large operations and business.”

For more information on contingency plans, visit: https://www.aggreko.com/en-gb/sectors-and-services/business-continuity