A four-step guide to protecting your power supply

Storms have battered the British Isles regularly over the past decade – flooding alone has left thousands of homes and businesses without power for days on end. Couple that with power station closures, and the UK is walking the tightrope where power is concerned. Because of this, many businesses are looking to protect themselves against disruptions with CHP systems. CHP works by capturing the heat created in the generation process to provide low-cost heating, cooling and electricity to buildings.

Here’s our four-step guide to protecting your business from power outages:

1. Preparation – what needs safeguarding?

Power outages are the nemesis of equipment which require a steady and stable stream of power to function without damage. Any loss of power can mean loss of data and ultimately, loss of revenue. To protect yours, we recommend you:

• Create an inventory of equipment that needs protecting
• Identify which equipment requires uninterrupted power and for how long
• Determine the power demand of keeping your equipment operational

2. Protection – improving the security of your electricity supply

CHP plants give you increased energy security, ensuring functions and systems keep running during power outages. The beauty of a CHP unit is that it offers a decentralised solution. Put simply, if the mains supply fails, you can still generate your own power on site without any disruption to your production process.

3. Preservation – an efficient, cheaper solution

A CHP system provides financial, operational and environmental advantages over traditional solutions when it comes to securing your energy supply. CHP can help you:

• Reduce electricity costs by around a third
• Reduce CO₂ emissions and lower SOx emissions with the use of natural gas as a fuel
• Comply with carbon legislation and efficiency scheme targets

4. Powering ahead – is CHP right for you?

Determining whether CHP could be right for you is very simple. If you can answer yes to the following questions, then CHP is worth exploring further for your business.

1. Do you use heat and power?
2. Is the cost of your energy rising?
3. Do you want to reduce your carbon emissions?