Electrical Power Loss and Instability Threat

The organization’s information system depends on the successful operation of many inter-dependent support systems including, power grids. Power irregularities issues are dramatically affecting the availability of information and systems.

Loss of power (blackout) or instability (such as spike, surge, sag, brownout, or fault) has negative impacts on the information availability. Devices that rely on electricity (including as computers, servers, router, firewalls, and IDSs) in organizations are vulnerable to instability  as a result of these changes.

1. What are the Countermeasures to prevent these threats to happen?

2. What are the Responses to deal (reduce, stop) with the threat when the threat takes place?

Countermeasures:

1-   Regular maintenance for the generator:  every organization should make a contract with companies who provide a regular maintenance for its internal generator like (Olayan and Khayrat Al Khaleej for Energy companies) in order to fix any errors that might cause blackout. (Razan)

2-   Full-company Hybrid: Solar + Batteries + Generator: this strategy state that the organizations use three sources for energy at the same time. The main source of energy is the generator but if any error happened to it, that cause reduce in its power the other two sources (solar energy and batteries) will automatically provide power equal to witch it was reduced. In this way no power instability will happened. (Razan)

3-      Use wind as an electric system: to support the main generator and reduce the pressure from it. If enough wind resource is available in the area and the situation is right, small wind electric systems are cost-effective renewable energy systems. It can be done using turbines or towers. (Kenda

  4-  Try not to Use Electricity When Not Using It (when not in need): For example people tend to leave things plugged in for hours or maybe even days between the times they actually use them. This includes computers, light bulbs, our air conditioning or heating (when we are out), coffee machines, and much more. These things are then using electricity even when not using them. This may lead to instability. Simply unplug these things when not going to use them. (And, in the case of the AC or heating, turn it off when going to be out for a while.) (Kenda)

         5-Use The Voltage regulator module that provides fixed voltage to the hardware when there is instability (Brownout or Surge) in the electricity voltage that will affect the performance of the hardware devices and may cause to lose data if the hardware fails due to the electrical instability. (Norah)

   6-    Use The UPS power supplier for the critical servers and hardware that contains data need to be saved, to recover them and continue the business operation by making the power generators ready in case a blackout or any issue stems from electrical instability in the company. (Norah)

 

 

 

 

 

 

     Responses:

 

1  - Use external generator for backup: Every company must have its own external generator to use in case of blackout. The power of the generator depend on the size of the company (the more the company is big more power its need), most of the company need at least generator who are able to provide electricity for (5-8) hours. During the blackout the company will back up all its systems. Also, it’s a good idea for the companies to program its systems to be backup automatically every 30min so no information will be lost and it won’t take much time to back up through the blackout. (Razan)

 

2   -    Contact with the electricity company:  the company must send a request to the electricity company to send them a technician to solve the problem. This process should be the first response that the company do, because in some cases the problem can be solved at the same time from the electricity company so their would be no need to make other responses. (Razan)

3   -       Turn off all the machines and devices that may get damaged if the electricity came back suddenly. The voltage may vary and damage any devices that are on. Also set all equipment and appliance switches to the OFF position. In order to protect when the full surge or current hits as the power comes back on. (Kenda)

4   -       Demand response: is a program that can be administrated by several organizations including energy providers and pays you for committing to reduce electricity usage during periods of peak demand across the system. It can also be defined as: "a wide range of actions which can be taken at the customer side of the electricity meter in response to particular conditions within the electricity system (such as peak period network congestion or high prices)”. (Kenda)

5       -     Discovering the source of the blackout by the organization's maintenance staff and check if it is limited or wide-range area is a main step after contact the electricity company. Determining the problem helps you to fix it immediately, get better resources to prevent the risk from happening again, or even set new regulations and policies in the future to minimize the likelihood and impact of electrical instability. (Norah)

 

6   - Save the work and data on the server and shut it down manually to avoid any damage that could happen to the server or any hardware due to the electrical surge when electricity restored. (Norah)