Outage inputs

Use actual shop, clinic, office, or production figures. Presets only adjust checklist guidance, not your numbers.

Business type

Local currency

Outage hours Total hours without usable grid power.

Revenue input basis

Revenue amount

Operating hours per day

Staff idle cost per hour Wages and paid contractor time that cannot be redeployed.

Generator or backup cost per hour Fuel, generator rental, battery hire, maintenance, or inverter runtime cost.

Residual spoiled inventory risk Value still at risk from cold chain, ingredients, stock, lab samples, or damaged production after current backup.

Expected spoilage percent

Residual internet or payment downtime Cost still expected from POS failure, router downtime, missed orders, call center loss, or reconciliation after current backup.

Recovery buffer percent Extra cost for restart, cleaning, queue backlog, overtime, and customer recovery.

Dated assumptions and sensitivity controls

Revenue actually lost Some sales may shift later. Use 100% when sales are perishable or walk-in dependent.

Backup coverage percent How much of normal operation your backup can keep running.

Similar outages per month

Proposed backup capital cost Up-front generator, inverter, battery, solar, connectivity, POS, or cold-storage cost. Do not include recurring running costs here.

Estimated outage impact

Total outage cost-Full incident estimate

Lost revenue-Adjusted for recoverable sales

Backup running cost-Generator or backup energy

Staff idle cost-Paid idle time

Spoilage and payment risk-Inventory plus digital downtime

Gross avoidable loss / month-Before proposed-system costs

Cost lane	Method	Result
Revenue loss	Revenue per hour x outage hours x lost percent x uncovered operations	-
Backup cost	Backup cost per hour x outage hours	-
Operational risk	Spoilage exposure plus internet or payment downtime	-
Recovery buffer	Subtotal x recovery buffer percent	-
Gross avoidable loss	Residual revenue, staff, risk, and related recovery cost; current backup running cost excluded	-
Monthly exposure	Total incident cost x similar outages per month	-

Run a calculation to see the backup investment case.

Operating checklist

Next action plan

Sources & verification

Last verified: 14 July 2026. Assumptions are user-entered and designed for African business outage planning, not a live utility tariff feed.

Use your meter logs, generator fuel receipts, POS reports, wage sheet, inventory register, internet provider outage log, and local utility or energy regulator notices for final decisions.

Methodology

Revenue per hour is entered directly or derived from daily revenue divided by operating hours.
Lost revenue is reduced by backup coverage and recoverable sales assumptions.
Staff idle, current backup running cost, residual spoilage, residual payment downtime, and a recovery buffer are added to the incident cost.
Gross avoidable loss includes residual revenue, staff, operational-risk, and related recovery costs. It excludes current backup running cost and its recovery markup.
Gross payback divides proposed capital cost by gross monthly avoidable loss. It is an optimistic screen before financing, maintenance, replacement energy, taxes, and coverage gaps.

Disclaimer

This calculator is an estimate only. It does not replace an accountant, insurer, electrical engineer, generator technician, fire-safety officer, or official utility interruption claim process.

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Outage inputs

Estimated outage impact

Operating checklist

Next action plan

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For utilities, estates, and business publishers