How can industrial plants protect themselves against blackouts?
A blackout is a real threat to industrial facilities, one that can lead to significant losses and major production disruptions. Downtime caused by a power outage can result in enormous, multimillion-dollar financial losses, equipment damage, and even pose risks to people and the environment. Modern technologies can help mitigate some of its consequences. In this article, we’ll explain how industrial companies can protect themselves by combining backup power sources, intelligent control systems, and a well-planned business continuity strategy.
What is a blackout?
A blackout is a widespread power outage, usually affecting an entire region and sometimes even several countries. Unlike local failures, blackouts are systemic and result from transmission network overload or damage, an imbalance between energy production and consumption, human error, extreme weather events, or cyberattacks. In Europe, the power system operates in a so-called synchronous mode, meaning a failure in one country can quickly affect the stability of power supply in neighboring states. One example is the April 2025 event – one of the largest blackouts in recent years.
The course of the blackout in Spain (April 2025)
On April 28, 2025, the Iberian Peninsula experienced the largest power failure in its history. The blackout affected almost all of mainland Spain, Portugal, and parts of southwestern France and Andorra. The power outage lasted from several to over a dozen hours, and in some areas even longer.
Within seconds, the power system lost 15 GW of capacity, about 60% of total production. For comparison, typical summer demand in Poland is about 20–23 GW. Frequency disturbances led to the automatic disconnection of transmission lines between Spain and France, causing a total network collapse.
The consequences were serious – all trains stopped, metro systems were evacuated, and Madrid airport lost power. At least seven people died due to the outage, mainly from candle fires and carbon monoxide poisoning from improperly used generators. The economic losses were estimated at around €1.6 billion. Power restoration began with transmission lines from France and Morocco and by restarting hydro and gas power plants. Full power restoration in Spain occurred the following day.
The course of the blackout in the Czech Republic (July 2025)
On Friday, July 4, 2025, our southern neighbors faced a blackout. The power system failure affected, among others, the right-bank part of Prague, the town of Říčany near Prague, Ústí nad Labem, Teplice, Kolín, Česká Lípa, and Mladá Boleslav. The latter is home to the SKODA car factory. Trams, trolleybuses, and the metro came to a halt. ATMs stopped working, and several thousand people were trapped in elevators and the metro. The blackout also affected the Orlen refinery – Unipetrol. It was completely shut down, and workers conducted controlled flaring of production surpluses in safety burners.
According to initial reports, the root cause of the failure was the disconnection (due to damage to one of the phase conductors) of a 400 kV line transmitting power from Unit 6 of the Ledvice coal-fired power plant. As a result, another line and a power station became overloaded. In total, due to a domino effect, nine substations were disconnected across a large area. The drop in generation amounted to approx. 1.5 GW, and in consumption – 2.7 GW. The damaged line was repaired and restored to operation at 10:00 PM. The cause of the line damage is still unknown, although the Czech government has ruled out a cyberattack.
The effects of blackouts on the power grid
A blackout is not just a temporary power loss – it is an event with serious consequences for the entire power system. When power is lost, the system must be rebuilt from scratch in a process called black start, which involves restarting the grid without an external energy source. This task falls to selected power plants capable of island operation, meaning independent from the national grid and capable of gradually restoring power. In Poland, such facilities include the Żarnowiec and Solina hydroelectric plants.
For grid operators, blackouts pose the risk of transformer damage, voltage and frequency destabilization, and synchronization disturbances between regions. The longer a blackout lasts, the harder it becomes to fully restore power. For the economy, this means losses of millions of euros for every hour of downtime.
How does a blackout affect industrial plants?
For industrial facilities, the effects of a blackout are immediate and severe. Power loss can lead to:
- stoppage of production and technological lines,
- data loss and damage to control systems,
- destruction of materials sensitive to temperature or processing time,
- machine failures due to sudden shutdowns,
- threats to workers and the environment, especially in the chemical, petrochemical, and food sectors.
High energy consumption and sensitivity to power continuity make the industrial sector one of the most vulnerable to the effects of prolonged power outages.
Modern industrial plants operate in an increasingly complex and integrated digital environment, making them particularly vulnerable to cyber threats. In the context of blackouts, it's important to note that a cyberattack can now be as effective a tool of destabilization as physical infrastructure damage. Criminals no longer need to enter a building or cut power lines — it's enough to gain access to IT networks or energy management systems and take control.
Therefore, securing a plant against the effects of a blackout must consider not only independent power sources but also digital resilience – we're talking about network segmentation, implementing zero trust architecture, updating SCADA system software, and continuous anomaly monitoring. Moreover, companies should regularly conduct resilience tests, implement incident response procedures, and ensure staff training.
How can industrial plants protect themselves against blackouts?
A blackout is a serious failure that cannot be predicted. Weather or technical causes are not the only concerns – a blackout can also be caused by a cyberattack or armed conflict. Therefore, prevention is key – the use of appropriate technical and organizational safeguards. Here are the main ways to protect industrial plants from the effects of power outages:
Power Generators and Backup Generators
One of the basic protections are diesel or gas generators that start automatically in case of a power outage. Properly sizing them for the plant’s peak load allows critical production processes to be maintained or technological lines to be shut down in a controlled manner.
UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) Systems
UPS systems protect devices sensitive to even momentary voltage drops – such as servers, automation systems, PLC controllers, or laboratory stations. When combined with a generator, they allow for a smooth transition to backup power without data loss or interruption of critical processes.
Energy Storage Systems
Battery-based energy storage systems, particularly lithium-ion ones, are becoming increasingly popular in industry. They provide backup power for periods ranging from several minutes to several hours, depending on capacity. Energy storage can be integrated with renewable energy sources (e.g., photovoltaics) and used not only during outages but also for optimizing energy costs by managing peak demand.
Local Energy Sources – Cogeneration, Trigeneration, and Photovoltaics
Industrial plants increasingly invest in their own energy sources. Cogeneration installations that simultaneously produce electricity and heat can operate in island mode, meaning they are independent from the external grid during a blackout. Similarly, photovoltaic systems equipped with energy storage and hybrid inverters can maintain the operation of selected installations.
Energy Management Systems (EMS)
Smart energy management systems monitor consumption, forecast demand, and enable immediate responses to anomalies. They make it possible to quickly disconnect low-priority loads, secure critical areas, and maintain internal power stability.
Business Continuity Plans
Technical safeguards are one part, but organizational procedures are equally important. Business continuity plans should clearly define which processes are critical, who is responsible for emergency actions, and what steps should be taken in the event of a power outage. Employees must be trained, and procedures regularly tested.
Backup [in the form of an energy storage system] is, of course, an extremely convenient solution, but it's not the cheapest one. It also obviously depends on how companies operate. However, today, still in a transitional period, until everyone wants to be carbon neutral or achieve net zero, the solution lies in cogeneration systems designed for continuous operation.
At the moment, we are operating several such units. [...] In the event of a disconnection, the plant operates in island mode using the cogeneration unit, occasionally reducing the demand of some smaller systems. But when the grid power returns, the system automatically switches from island operation back to grid operation. And this is the kind of solution that, once implemented, completely eliminated the issues caused by storms, winds, floods, local inundations, and various other situations that used to wake us up at night when we had to respond and switch the system remotely. Today, it works fully automatically and operates exceptionally reliably.
Is it possible to maintain production continuity during a blackout?
Although it's not always possible to fully protect against the effects of a blackout, many plants can minimize its impact and, in some cases, even maintain production continuity. To ensure protection, it's worth investing in:
- well-designed in-house power sources,
- modularity and flexibility of power systems,
- prioritization of strategic areas,
- adequate production and storage buffers,
- automation systems that switch power sources without disrupting technological processes.
In practice, this means that not every production line needs to operate during a blackout, but the most critical ones – such as uninterrupted chemical processes or cooling of sensitive materials – can be maintained thanks to local power sources. Plants using trigeneration, i.e., the simultaneous production of electricity, heat, and cooling, can even achieve full independence from external power supply.
Investing in energy independence as a strategic element
A blackout is not the only cause of power loss – even smaller failures can locally produce similar effects and losses. Energy independence is not just part of risk management, but also a competitive advantage when power supply is unstable. Companies investing in local energy sources, energy storage, and intelligent management systems gain greater resilience and prevent future potential problems.
Protecting an industrial facility from power loss is not only a safety issue but also a strategic approach to doing business. This is particularly important for industries that produce goods and technologies for both civilian and military use. Transitioning to in-house energy sources and responsible crisis-time management allows companies to maintain operational continuity, reduce losses, and recover more quickly after a failure. It is also a key part of their responsibility toward employees, clients, and the environment.
Every investment comes with costs, but the losses caused by a lack of blackout preparedness can be much greater. That’s why it’s essential to assess potential risks and plan the implementation of appropriate safeguards – both technical and organizational. Only a conscious and comprehensive approach to energy management will allow companies to survive such situations with minimal losses.
