According to a new survey reported exclusively in Welt am Sonntag on May 11, 2024, 70% of German companies are affected by power outages, some of which result in high costs. In Germany as a business location, short-term power outages lead to production losses and machine damage for numerous companies in various sectors and regions, according to a random survey of 1000 companies conducted by the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK).
It was found that 28% of companies were affected by power outages that lasted longer than three minutes, while 42% reported interruptions lasting less than three minutes. These shorter outages are not recorded by the Federal Network Agency and are not part of the SAIDI value, an internationally recognized indicator of power quality in the electricity grid. Nevertheless, even short power interruptions can cause considerable damage to precision equipment.
The DIHK survey shows that a third (32%) of respondents said they had incurred additional costs of up to 10,000 euros, while 15% of participants had incurred costs of between 10,000 and 100,000 euros and 2% more than 100,000 euros due to power outages. Last year, 7% of companies installed emergency power generators and 11% relied on energy storage to protect themselves against peak loads.
The exact causes of power outages often remain unclear, with two thirds of companies receiving no information about the causes. This lack of knowledge promotes doubts about the reliability of the electricity grids, according to Achim Dercks, Deputy Managing Director of the DIHK, who is calling for a right to information about the reasons for outages and a revision of the compensation regulations. Dercks also suggests that the Federal Network Agency should introduce random monitoring for outages lasting less than three minutes.
