When the power goes out in a commercial building, the first few minutes matter more than people expect. What you do, and what you check, shapes whether the outage stays a minor disruption or turns into damaged equipment, a safety issue, or a longer shutdown than necessary.
First, figure out how big the problem is
Check whether the outage is limited to your building or affects the wider area. A quick look at neighbouring buildings or streetlights, or a call to your utility's outage line, tells you whether this is a utility-side event or something local to your electrical service. That distinction changes what you do next. A wide-area outage is out of your hands until the utility restores service. A local outage, such as a tripped main breaker or a problem at your service entrance, may need an electrician regardless of what the utility is doing.
Account for people first
Before anything else, confirm everyone in the building is safe, particularly in areas without windows, in elevators, or in spaces that rely on powered ventilation. Emergency lighting and exit signage should illuminate automatically. If they do not, that is a serious problem on its own and worth flagging for immediate repair once power is restored, not filed away for later.
Protect equipment and processes
If your building has a standby generator with an automatic transfer switch, it should already be starting on its own. If it has not started within the expected time, do not attempt to force it manually unless staff have been trained and authorized to do so. For buildings without backup power, focus on:
- Shutting down or unplugging sensitive electronic equipment that could be damaged by a power surge when service returns.
- Checking on refrigeration or temperature-controlled areas if the outage is expected to run long.
- Securing any processes that were mid-cycle when power dropped, where it is safe to do so.
Watch for the return of power
Power returning is not automatically good news. A surge or an unstable restoration can damage equipment that was left connected. If you have sensitive electronics, servers or specialized equipment, staged reconnection, rather than everything switching back on at once, reduces that risk.
When to call an electrician instead of waiting it out
Some situations point to a problem on your side of the meter rather than a utility outage, and these warrant a call regardless of the hour:
- Only part of the building lost power while the rest of the block did not.
- You smell burning, see sparking, or hear unusual sounds from a panel or equipment.
- The outage followed a storm, flooding, or visible damage to your service entrance or overhead lines.
- Power returns but flickers, sags, or trips breakers repeatedly.
These are the calls that belong with emergency electrical service, not a wait-and-see approach.
After the outage
Once power is stable, walk the building. Check that all critical systems, including life safety equipment, restarted correctly. Log what happened and when, since a pattern of repeated local outages is worth investigating even if each one resolves on its own. If a generator or transfer switch did not perform as expected, that is worth a service call before the next event, not after it.
Elevators and access control
Elevators typically require a technician to release passengers safely if one stops between floors during an outage, and staff should know how to reach the elevator service contractor directly rather than attempting to force doors open. Access control and security systems, including card readers, alarm panels and cameras, often run on battery backup with a limited runtime, and that runtime shortens with age even if the system reports as functional during a quick test. If your building relies on these systems for tenant security, confirm how long the battery backup actually lasts under real conditions, not just the manufacturer's original specification, since batteries degrade over years of standby service without anyone noticing until they are needed.
Talk to Puffin Power
If your commercial building needs an electrician during an outage, or you want to review how prepared your building actually is for the next one, Puffin Power provides emergency electrical service across the region. Call (709) 769-9713 or reach us at /contact.html.
Published 2026-09-23 · About 3 minute read