In recent months a number of our clients have raised the question of our ability to keep on delivering export documentation services in the event of a power cut. This was particularly relevant last autumn when there was talk of rolling power outages for businesses over the winter.
We recognise the time-critical nature of many of our clients’ businesses and the potential impact of unplanned downtime. Therefore, in addition to our staff being able to work remotely as part of our hybrid working arrangements, we went out and a purchased a generator to keep the office going should the worst happen!
That was just a quick fix. As one of the UK’s first carbon neutral Chambers of Commerce, we have been using green electricity for some time, but felt there was more that we could do whilst also improving our resilience, creating clean power and testing some new tech.
We are now trialling a solar powered Energy Storage System at Leigh Court, and our international trade team is now powered by a dedicated critical load supply. Think of a blend of mains electricity, solar energy, batteries and a UPS/power management system.
Effectively, sunshine powers the team, and any surplus electricity charges up a bank of batteries and, once they are full, goes back to power the rest of our building. When the sun goes in, we run on battery power, and once the sun comes back out, it starts all over again. If we lose mains power, the system is seamlessly supplied from batteries and/or solar, and the generator can feed into the system if all else fails.
Our estate staff can also be alerted of any power outages via an app - although we are pretty sure they won’t need that to tell them!
So now we have the power covered - making us even more dependable when it comes to providing our clients with the documentation they need.
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