A study measuring the economic impact of the North American power blackout in August has concluded that the event will have far-reaching, long-term implications for business and organisations in the affected region. The study was jointly carried out by Miriflex, the Center for Regional Economic Issues at Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management, and CrainTech.
Results of the study indicate that the event will affect growth and relocation plans for a significant number of businesses, and that it will cause many more to ramp up their investments in disaster preparedness and alternate energy systems in the future.
Among the key findings of the study were: • 11% of firms said that the blackout will affect their decision making with regard to either growth or relocation.
• 38% of the businesses surveyed said that they would be likely to invest in alternate energy systems.
• 34% currently have no risk management or disaster recovery plans in place.
• 46% will invest more in risk management, business continuance or disaster recovery in the future.
• 35% believed that it was likely that the region's image would suffer as a result of the blackout.
• 66% lost at least a full business day due to the blackout.
• 24% lost over $50,000 per hour of downtime.
• 4% lost over $1 million per hour of downtime.
• Production/manufacturing and customer sales/service were the areas of business hardest hit by the blackout.
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