Power Outages & Brownouts Secretly Hurting the Bottom Line

Consumer's Energy Outage Map of
Kalamazoo for July 23rd, 2013

Consumer's Energy Outage Map of
Downtown Kalamazoo for May 29th, 2013

A power outage today, July 23rd, has left 4500+ without power!(Another on the east side of downtown Kalamazoo, on May 30th resulted in almost 1000 Consumers Energy customers out of power for the majority of the afternoon.) The outage left many Kalamazoo businesses unable to process transactions.

Of course, we're writing about this outage because it affected out direct surroundings, but that's what power outages do. And they do not ask if it is convenient to occur, nor are they predictable, yet they cost businesses millions every year.

Here are the hard facts. The US Department of Labor estimates that power outages cost $80 billion per year and that 73%, or $57 billion, of those losses come from the business sector and 25%, or $20 billion, come from the industrial sector. A typical convenience store/gas station, for example, can lose about $445 per hour in revenue.

But lost revenue alone does not tell the whole story.

Read the full article about power outages and brownout costs on Newmind's official blog

Daniel Proczko has been working with organizations and individuals to build & grow the entrepreneur community of Kalamazoo, MI. From organizing TEDx events, hack-a-thons, and documentary screenings to engaging with business leaders, Dan strives to inspire individuals with new ideas and better thinking.

Having always been interested in tech and understanding the value of innovation through IT, communicating the importance of strategic IT thinking is one of Dan's primary goals within Newmind Group.