Event: Focus Group: How would your business cope in a power cut?

How would your business cope in a power cut?

Norfolk Chamber of Commerce are holding a focus group formicro-small rural based businesses (with under 50 employees) to discuss implications of power cuts or failures on their business,in partnership with UK Power Networks.The focus group will take place in Norwich, UK Power Networks willprovide a presentation, followed by discussions and a Q&A session.

The focus group will explore small businesses reliance on electricity, resilience to power cuts, their concerns, the potential impact of power cuts and how business could be supported.

Since 2010, UK Power Networks have reduced the frequency of power cuts by 42% and the length of power cuts by 53%. Despite this, as part of UK Power Network’s stakeholder engagement programme they are seeking to understand more about the views of Small and Micro businesses (up to 50 employees) with regard to power cuts, their impact and the services that they provide.

As part of a broad programme of research UK Power Networks (UKPN) wants to understand how they can support you in the event of a power cut and what information you need. In particular, rural based small and micro businesses are a group UKPN has identified as having particular vulnerabilities, concerns and views around energy reliability and resilience that could be of relevance to UKPN’s planning and operations.

What’s in it for the businesses and why should they attend?

• Influencing decisions, investment plans and services provided to the small/micro business sector
• Being better informed about power cuts, business continuity and resilience planning
• Helping protect their own business and support other businesses
• Co-designing the power cut emergency pack
• Being signposted to business support opportunities
• Expenses covered

Aims of the Focus Group

• To deepen UKPN’s understanding of business concerns and vulnerabilities
• To inform a programme of wider business engagement activities
• To support the development of new or improved services for SMEs