At Alpha Power, we understand better than anyone how load shedding has become an almost ever-present reality in South Africa’s business world, yet it is uncertain as to when this situation will change for the better.
7 Corporate Load Shedding Management Tips
As annoying as it may be, we all have little choice but to find ways to work around it. As specialists in alternative power sources, Alpha Power offers seven load shedding tips in this blog to help you by easing the load your company has to carry.
Load Shedding Management Tip #1: Schedule Around the Power Cuts
Barring some technical or scheduling glitch, there is never any reason to be caught off guard by a bout of load shedding. Eskom always announces load shedding and all you then need to do is consult your local schedule (available either on your municipality’s website or on the Eskom website) and know exactly when to expect the cuts. You can then schedule your work around the power shortages and minimize (sometimes even eliminate) any impact on productivity.
Load Shedding Management Tip #2: Make Preparations for Offline Work
Once you have consulted the load shedding schedules and communicated them to all departments, ask managers to ensure that all staff plan their work in such a way that they can continue when the power goes out. You don’t need to be plugged in or online for everything you do. Most positions will have certain tasks they can carry out without their computers or other electrical devices and they should schedule those for the load shedding periods.
Load Shedding Management Tip #3: Keep Devices Charged & Save Work
It is also possible to continue working uninterrupted during the power cuts if you work on a laptop or other portable device. You simply need to make sure that these devices are fully charged before the load shedding hits. Most devices should then run long enough to keep the staff going through the dark hours. The only difference is that you may need to work offline, switch to battery-powered hotspots, or ensure that your modems and routers are connected to back-up power sources.
Load Shedding Management Tip #4: Assess & Manage Your Potential Risks
Depending on the work your company does and the way you carry out that work, you will have a unique set of risks that may be exacerbated by power cuts. You need to assess what and where these are and how they can be managed. If you deal with food, for example, you may run the risk of stock spoiling if the fridges are off for too long (keeping in mind that load shedding could lead to long-term power cuts as a result of the increased risk of technical faults). So you may need to hook up an alternative power source to keep things cool whether Eskom is supplying you electricity or not.
Load Shedding Management Tip #5: Get Surge Protectors
When the power is reconnected after a period of load shedding, there is often an increased chance of power surges and these can damage or even destroy your electronic devices. The solution is to purchase surge protectors and make sure that all devices are plugged into them. This is a relatively inexpensive solution.
Load Shedding Management Tip #6: Invest in UPSs for Your Workstations
Not all of us can work on laptops and tablets and need to stay connected to our desktop computers in order to keep running. Failing the ability to facilitate a continued connection, we at least need an opportunity to properly shut our computers down, to ensure that nothing is lost. UPSs should be connected to all desktop computers for this purpose.
Load Shedding Management Tip #7: Install a Generator
The first prize, aside from alternative power sources for your devices, is a generator that can keep at least the essentials running during load shedding. Research the power requirements of your business and then look into how big a generator you can purchase to fill at least part of that power demand. In this way, you can keep running all workstations and devices essential to your core work, and even some essential lights. If you can afford a big enough generator, you can power your entire office. This is seldom really necessary though. The most important thing is to power the essentials.
Alpha Power is the Name to Trust When it Comes to Limiting the Damaging Effects of Load Shedding
Alpha Power is a direct importer of UPSs, batteries, inverters and AVRs. We can provide you with the power sources you need to keep your business running during load shedding. Browse our product range or contact us for more information.
