S&C Releases Full Results from 'State of Commercial & Industrial Power Reliability' Report

Report reveals 70 percent of companies see power reliability as an existing cause for concern.
   
CHICAGO, March 22, 2018 – S&C Electric Company, a smart-grid leader shaping the future of power delivery, released its first “State of Commercial & Industrial Power Reliability” report in its entirety. The report provides insights into commercial and industrial (C&I) customers’ perspectives on power reliability, and sets out to understand the C&I customers’ degree of satisfaction with power providers and needs for the future.

See full report here.

“Although data exist about outages in the United States and their cost, no one has systematically attempted to gather the opinions of utilities’ most prudent customers,” said Jerry Yakel, Director of Grid Reliability at S&C Electric Company. “We wanted to uncover what customers truly think about power reliability and to understand what ‘satisfaction’ means and what drives it. It’s these types of findings that inspire S&C to create innovative solutions and continually push the industry forward.”

To create a backdrop for the findings within the report, S&C assessed C&I power outages throughout 2017. S&C found:

• 50 percent of companies experienced a power outage lasting more than one hour.
• 25 percent of companies experienced a power outage at least once a month, and 86 percent of respondents have experienced at least one power outage in the last 12 months.
• 18 percent of companies experienced a loss of more than $100,000 as a result of the worst outage.

S&C’s latest research shows that outages continue to have a significant impact on utilities. Although the majority of C&I customers claim to be content with their power reliability, their behaviors and concerns indicate otherwise and in the same breath admit that power reliability is a concern.

According to the report, C&I customers are incorporating alternative resources to bolster on-site generation, turning away from their power providers for solutions and calling on the industry to take a stricter stance on power-reliability standards. The survey uncovered that:

• 71 percent of companies own or plan to develop alternative energy sources, supplementing their existing provider’s generation and power reliability.
• 67 percent of companies believe major events (weather or generation loss) and outages lasting less than five minutes should be included in reliability measurements.
• 70 percent of companies see power reliability as an existing cause for concern, and 40 percent would pay premiums to improve it.

Surveyed companies average $4 billion in revenue and comprise the majority of the metered revenues for the utilities serving them. Respondents’ opinions authentically portray the industry’s current conditions, and their long-term needs heavily influence the future grid.