Businesses underestimate the cost of electricity failures, according to  Centrica Business Solutions.

In a survey of UK and Irish businesses, senior energy decision-makers who had not experienced a serious energy failure predicted the cost to their business would be 7% of  annual revenue. In reality, said Centrica, businesses who had blackouts  found the actual figure was much higher, estimated to be 17%.

Centrica said 88% of UK businesses surveyed stated energy resilience was important and 58% said it was critical. At the same time, 52% of respondents thought they would experience an energy-related failure in the next year.

Despite this, Centrica found that only 16% of companies are making energy resilience a top priority and only 18% of businesses have a formal energy resilience strategy. A further 32% of businesses have no form of energy resilience strategy in place at all.

Read the full report, The Resilience Report: Measuring the business impact of energy-related failures and creating an energy resilient future, here.

Further reading

Survey reveals major opportunities for demand side response

Fear of disruption limiting DSR uptake by UK firms