Power outages can have a significant impact on companies. Production downtime, machine damage or data loss can be the result. Many companies in Germany currently see risks to grid stability due to frequent power interruptions or outages. The German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) has conducted a survey on security of supply against the backdrop of growing concerns in the economy about power outages.
Industry most affected
Around 1,000 companies from various sectors and regions took part in the DIHK survey in 2023. In terms of company size, the majority of responding companies are SMEs. One third of the companies are small (up to 19 employees), 41% are medium-sized (up to 249 employees). 80 or 10 percent of the participating companies are very large (1000 or more employees).
Even though it was mainly those companies that are particularly affected by power outages that took part, the results for this section of the economy are remarkable: just under a third of the 1,000 companies have experienced power outages lasting more than three minutes. According to their own information, 42 percent of the responding companies were affected by short, noticeable power outages (less than three minutes). In industry, more than half of the companies reported such disruptions. Just under a third of respondents had experienced power outages lasting more than three minutes.
Major financial impact
According to the survey, power outages have a significant financial impact on businesses. In 2023, for example, almost half of the companies affected had incurred additional costs due to production downtime and machine damage, among other things. These costs were mostly in the order of up to 10,000 euros, but many also reached up to 50,000 euros, in some cases even more than 100,000 euros.
DIHK proposes right to information about causes
According to the survey, the exact cause of the power outages is usually unclear. Two thirds of companies do not know the reason for the difficulties in their own business. "As long as companies do not know the causes of the majority of power outages, doubts about the reliability of the grids will grow," commented the Deputy Managing Director of the DIHK on this result. "The IHK organization therefore proposes, for example, a right to information about the causes of power outages and a revision of the compensation regulations. It would also be important for the Federal Network Agency to carry out random monitoring of power outages lasting less than three minutes. This is because these have not yet been documented by official monitoring."