Two factories of the same size, in the same state, may have different risks of stopping due to lack of energy. One is in a network section with few interruptions, and the other in a region with many occurrences, with a furnace that takes six hours to return to operation.
Assessing the energy risk of the operation is what turns this difference into an investment decision. Follow along to see how to measure this risk with public data and with three pieces of information that your own team gathers: the delivery point history, the critical load, and the cost of downtime.
Executive summary
- ANEEL publishes, by municipality, how many hours and how many times per year the average customer is without power.
- The energy risk of the operation only becomes a number when this data meets the mapped critical load and the cost of downtime.
- Renting a generator pays off when the cost of downtime exceeds the equipment’s monthly fee.
Index
- What constitutes the energy risk of the operation
- How to assess the energy risk of the operation in five steps
- When temporary energy comes into play
- Frequently asked questions about the energy risk of the operation
- Conclusion
What constitutes the energy risk of the operation
The energy risk of the operation is formed by the convergence of three factors: the quality of supply in the region, what the operation cannot afford to lose, and the cost of each hour of downtime. The calculation is only accurate when you consider all three together.
The quality of supply in your region
The quality of power supply is measured and published: each distributor reports to ANEEL how many hours per year the average customer was without power and how many times this happened.
These two supply quality indicators have their own names and rules: they are DEC and FEC, defined in Module 8 of PRODIST, which ANEEL calls Quality of Electric Power Supply and publishes by municipality and by distributor.
These numbers vary greatly between cities served by the same distributor, making the indicator for your municipality the cheapest step in the evaluation and, at the same time, the most overlooked.
What your operation cannot tolerate
Critical load is the set of equipment that cannot be turned off without consequence, and the size of this list varies greatly from place to place.
In a hospital, the critical load is evident and has its own standard, ABNT NBR 13534, while in industry it is usually a small and expensive subset, with server room, control system, process cooling, and safety pumps.
The common mistake is to size contingency for the entire plant when the real risk is in 15% of it, or the opposite, protect only the office and leave the process exposed.
How much does downtime cost
The cost of downtime is the number that weighs most in the decision, and it adds up lost production, discarded raw materials, rework, idle labor, contractual penalties, and the cost of restarting the process.
Without this number, any discussion about energy investment becomes personal preference. With it, the calculation solves itself: if downtime costs more than the monthly rental of a generator, the decision is made.
How to assess the energy risk of the operation in five steps
The guide below fits into an afternoon of work and does not require consulting.
1. Gather the history of your delivery point
The energy delivery point is where the distributor’s network ends and the company’s installation begins. Ask the utility for the interruption history of the last 24 months for your consumer unit.
This history shows frequency, duration, and cause, and is more accurate than the municipal average as it refers to your delivery point.
2. Compare with the city’s public indicator
With the history in hand, compare it with ANEEL’s indicator for the municipality. If your unit suffers more than the average, there is a local, branch, or network problem that can be addressed with the distributor.
If it suffers less, the risk is lower than internal perception suggests, and the investment can go elsewhere.
This comparison is the data that Tecnogera requests before sizing any rental, because it separates the network problem, which is resolved with the distributor, from the risk that only a generator covers.
3. Map the critical load
List the equipment that cannot stop, with the power of each and the maximum interruption time they can withstand, as some tolerate minutes and others cannot tolerate even seconds.
This survey is faster when starting from the single-line diagram and the distribution panel, which ABNT NBR 5410 requires documented in low voltage installation.
This map defines the type of protection: UPS for what cannot tolerate flickers, generator for what needs autonomy, both in series for what needs both.
4. Calculate the cost of downtime per area
Calculating separately by area reveals where the money is, and there is usually a big difference between the sector that management considers critical and what the spreadsheet shows as critical.
5. Define the level of electrical redundancy
Electrical redundancy is how much reserve the operation maintains, and the scale goes from none, through a generator dedicated to the critical load, to two independent power supply paths.
The generator’s operating regime is part of this choice and has its own classification in ABNT NBR ISO 8528, which separates emergency equipment from that which runs as the main source of operation.
Each step of this scale costs more and reduces more risk, and the right choice is the step that pays for itself with the cost of avoided downtime.
When temporary power comes into play
Not every identified risk requires equipment purchase, and temporary power solves three situations more economically that frequently appear in the evaluation of the operation’s energy risk.
Seasonal risk
Seasonal risk appears when the operation has months of greater exposure, such as periods of heavy rain or peak production, and renting during this window costs less than maintaining an idle asset all year.
Temporary risk
Temporary risk appears in construction, load expansion, or waiting for the increase in demand contracted with the distributor, and during this interval, the generator covers the operation without immobilizing capital.
Newly identified risk
The newly identified risk is what the assessment has just revealed, with high exposure and a definitive solution still months away from project and installation, and it is in this window that the rental secures the operation.
Rental as a response to mapped risk
Tecnogera addresses these three situations with generators, chillers, platforms, and lighting towers from 28 units, with 24-hour on-call service, and sizes based on the critical load map and the ABNT NBR ISO 8528 regime.
Simply provide the critical load, deadline, and city to receive a proposal.
Frequently asked questions about operational energy risk
Where can I check the outage history for my region?
The distributor serving the municipality publishes supply quality indicators and is required to provide the history of your consumer unit when requested by the account holder.
What is the difference between energy security and operational continuity?
Energy security refers to a country or region’s ability to ensure supply, while operational continuity refers to your company’s ability to keep operating when that supply fails.
Does every company need a generator?
Not every company needs a generator, as it is only justified for those with loads that cannot tolerate interruptions or where the cost of downtime exceeds the cost of protection, and the assessment exists to answer this with numbers.
Is a UPS enough?
It depends on the duration of the interruption, as a UPS supports minutes and is used for safe shutdown or to cover the interval until the generator takes over. Hour-long interruptions require a generator.
How do I know the required power?
By adding the mapped critical load and considering the motor’s starting peak, which is several times higher than the consumption in operation. This is the calculation that most often errs when done solely by the electricity bill.
Is it better to rent or buy?
Purchasing makes sense in permanent and high risk, while renting better serves seasonal, temporary, or newly identified risks, and also cases where capital is better used in the core activity.
Does a short interruption damage equipment?
A short interruption can cause more damage than a long one: fluctuation and automatic reconnection strain electronics and motors when equipment is turned off and on without control.
What is a delivery point?
The delivery point is the boundary between the distributor’s network and the customer’s installation, and it defines who is responsible for each section and serves as a reference for the supply history.
How often to redo the assessment?
The assessment is redone once a year and also with each load increase, process change, or construction that alters the installation.
Is the assessment used to negotiate with the distributor?
The assessment is used for this and is one of its best uses, because a documented history of interruption is the argument that supports a request for network improvement or change of delivery point.
Conclusion
The operational energy risk is a calculation, which you compute with the history of your delivery point, the critical load map, and the cost of downtime.
Once this calculation is done, the decision to protect, rent, or do nothing is no longer an opinion and becomes arithmetic, and it is with this in hand that Tecnogera sizes the rental, instead of selling more power as a precaution.
Read also: how much does an hour of downtime cost
