# Factory Power Resilience Assessment for African Manufacturers > Source: https://netray.co/tools/africa-factory-power-resilience-assessment > Publisher: Netray (netray.co), AI and integration engineering for ERP and manufacturing systems. > Section: Free Tools ## Short answer Score your plant on backup power, critical load planning, maintenance and IT protection to see how exposed you are to grid outages. ## Category manufacturing ## Region Africa ## Industry Manufacturing ## Audience - Plant manager - Operations director - Maintenance manager - COO ## Tool **Kind:** assessment **Questions:** #### How much of your plant's critical load is covered by backup power? **Help:** Critical load includes process equipment that is costly to restart, safety systems, controls, compressed air and IT. **Options:** ##### Not defined or mostly uncovered **Score:** 0 ##### Some critical loads covered **Score:** 1 ##### Most critical loads covered **Score:** 2 ##### All critical loads covered and tested **Score:** 3 #### Do you have a written critical load list with start up order? **Options:** ##### No **Score:** 0 ##### Informal knowledge only **Score:** 1 ##### Written but not reviewed in a year **Score:** 2 ##### Written, reviewed and used in drills **Score:** 3 #### How often are generators and transfer switches load tested? **Options:** ##### Never or only when needed **Score:** 0 ##### Yearly **Score:** 1 ##### Quarterly **Score:** 2 ##### Monthly on load with records **Score:** 3 #### How is fuel supply for backup generation managed? **Options:** ##### Ad hoc purchases **Score:** 0 ##### Tank with manual checks **Score:** 1 ##### Tank with reorder level and supplier agreement **Score:** 2 ##### Monitored tank, reorder level and a second supplier **Score:** 3 #### Do you have a published outage schedule or alert process for planned load shedding? **Options:** ##### No process **Score:** 0 ##### Staff check schedules individually **Score:** 1 ##### Shared schedule used by supervisors **Score:** 2 ##### Schedule feeds production planning and shift decisions **Score:** 3 #### How well are servers, network and the ERP protected from power loss? **Options:** ##### No UPS or generator support **Score:** 0 ##### UPS with short runtime **Score:** 1 ##### UPS plus generator, untested shutdown **Score:** 2 ##### UPS plus generator, tested graceful shutdown and restart **Score:** 3 #### How do you handle power quality issues such as sags, surges and phase loss? **Options:** ##### No protection **Score:** 0 ##### Surge protection on some equipment **Score:** 1 ##### Protection relays and surge devices on key equipment **Score:** 2 ##### Power quality monitored and logged with action on trends **Score:** 3 #### Do you know the cost per hour of an outage by line or area? **Options:** ##### No **Score:** 0 ##### Rough estimate **Score:** 1 ##### Calculated for main lines **Score:** 2 ##### Calculated and used to justify power investments **Score:** 3 #### Do you have an alternative energy plan such as solar or storage evaluated? **Options:** ##### Not considered **Score:** 0 ##### Considered informally **Score:** 1 ##### Studied with a costed option **Score:** 2 ##### Partly implemented and measured **Score:** 3 #### How often do you run a full outage and restart drill? **Options:** ##### Never **Score:** 0 ##### Once so far **Score:** 1 ##### Yearly **Score:** 2 ##### Twice a year with review actions closed **Score:** 3 **Bands:** #### Exposed **Min:** 0 **Max:** 39 **Verdict:** Outages are likely to cause lost production, damaged equipment and data risk. **Recommendations:** - Write a critical load list and start up order this month. - Protect servers and the ERP database with a UPS and a graceful shutdown. - Calculate the cost per outage hour for your main line. - Start monthly load tests on any generator you have. #### Partly protected **Min:** 40 **Max:** 64 **Verdict:** You have some protection but gaps remain in testing, fuel or planning. **Recommendations:** - Close the gaps in fuel reorder levels and supplier cover. - Run a full outage and restart drill and record the findings. - Feed the load shedding schedule into production planning. - Review power quality issues on sensitive equipment. #### Resilient with gaps **Min:** 65 **Max:** 84 **Verdict:** Your plant copes with most outages. Focus on testing discipline and cost visibility. **Recommendations:** - Use outage cost data to compare solar, storage and more generation. - Monitor power quality and track trends. - Make drills a twice yearly routine and close actions. #### Well prepared **Min:** 85 **Max:** 100 **Verdict:** You have layered protection and good discipline. Keep testing and measuring. **Recommendations:** - Review the plan after any plant change or expansion. - Share your outage data with finance to track the energy cost trend. - Audit fuel, maintenance and test records every year. ## Content **Intro:** In many African markets a factory cannot assume the grid will be there. Load shedding, voltage swings and local outages decide how many shifts you actually run. This assessment asks ten practical questions and returns a score that shows where you are exposed. **Sections:** #### How to use the assessment **Body:** Answer for the plant as it runs today, not as the plan says it should. Involve the maintenance manager and the IT lead, since power is a joint concern. The score is shown as a percentage of the maximum, which maps to a band with recommended next steps. Re-run it after any investment or after a long outage, and compare results across sites if you run more than one. #### What the questions measure **Body:** The questions cover four areas. Coverage and planning ask whether you know what must stay on and in what order to restart it. Equipment and fuel ask whether generators run when you need them. Information systems ask whether your servers and ERP shut down safely and come back cleanly. Cost and strategy ask whether you know the price of an outage and have evaluated alternatives such as solar and storage. **Bullets:** - Critical load list and start up order - Generator testing and fuel management - UPS, server shutdown and ERP restart - Outage cost per hour and alternative energy #### Reading your score **Body:** A low score does not mean a failing plant. It means outages are managed by luck and people rather than by design. The cheapest gains are usually a written load list, a monthly generator load test and a safe shutdown for servers. Larger investments such as solar or storage make sense after you know your outage cost per hour. Use the calculators on this site to size generator runtime and compare diesel cost with grid power. #### Common mistakes **Body:** Frequent errors include sizing a generator for the full plant when only critical loads need cover, ignoring starting current of large motors, running generators without load tests, and forgetting that an ERP database can corrupt after a hard power cut. Another is treating the outage schedule as information for staff only, rather than an input for production planning. **Cta:** If outages disrupt your ERP, MES or reporting, Netray can help design an on-prem setup that survives power loss and recovers cleanly. **Faq:** #### Is this only for load shedding? **Answer:** No. It covers any grid unreliability, including unplanned outages, voltage sags and phase loss. Planned load shedding is one question, but the other questions apply to any outage. #### Do I need a generator to score well? **Answer:** You need some form of backup for critical loads, which could be generation, batteries or solar with storage. The assessment cares about coverage, testing and planning more than the type of equipment. #### How should I protect the ERP server? **Answer:** Use a UPS sized for enough runtime to shut down cleanly, connect it to the server for automatic shutdown, and back it with a generator. Test shutdown and restart, including database startup and application services. #### How often should I repeat the assessment? **Answer:** Yearly is a good minimum. Repeat it after plant changes, a serious outage, or when the grid situation in your area changes. ## Search terms factory power resilience assessment, load shedding manufacturing plan, backup power assessment factory, grid outage readiness manufacturing, generator readiness checklist factory, power reliability scorecard, africa plant power outage risk, critical load list factory --- Talk to an engineer: https://netray.co/contact?intent=erp_ai | Machine catalog: https://netray.co/agent/catalog.json