Do I need a generator if I have a UPS?

For brief outages — under 20 minutes — a UPS alone is usually fine. For multi-day outages common in PNW winters, a UPS only buys you a clean shutdown. The real continuity comes from either a generator or a cloud-first IT model that makes the office optional.

How do I size a UPS for a small server room?

Add the wattage of every device on the rack (or use the nameplate VA values), then choose a UPS rated at roughly 1.5-2x the total load to give yourself runtime headroom and battery longevity. Your managed IT provider can do this assessment as part of routine planning.

Does business interruption insurance cover IT-related power outages?

Sometimes. Many policies require a direct physical loss to the property to trigger coverage. A widespread utility outage that does not damage your building may not qualify. Review with your broker before storm season — the renewal process is the wrong time to find out.

What about cell tower outages during major storms?

Cellular networks have backup power but it is not infinite. In the November 2024 event, some PNW cell sites went offline after 24-48 hours. Cellular failover is a useful continuity layer, not a complete answer — which is part of why making the office optional matters.

How does FEMA recommend small businesses plan for utility outages?

FEMA's Ready.gov for Business covers continuity planning broadly, including power and communication considerations. Their consistent finding: businesses without continuity plans are significantly less likely to recover from extended disruptions.

How Should Pacific Northwest Businesses Plan for Extended Power Outages?

Name: ROI Technology Inc.
Address: PO Box 3424, Arlington, WA, 98223, US
Telephone: (888) 707-3652
Price range: $$

Pacific Northwest businesses should plan for extended power outages by sizing UPS units for clean shutdowns (not for keeping the office running), deciding honestly whether a generator pays back versus a cloud-first IT footprint, ensuring critical systems run from somewhere other than the building, and pre-staging remote work so staff can keep working from wherever the power is on. PSE, SnoPUD, and Seattle City Light territory routinely see multi-day outages every winter. The cheapest continuity strategy for most small businesses is not a generator — it is making the office optional.

This post focuses specifically on power outages. For broader storm-season prep — including atmospheric rivers, internet redundancy, and communication trees — see our PNW storm IT preparedness guide.

How Often Do PNW Businesses Actually Lose Power?

The numbers from the last two winters tell the real story:

November 19-20, 2024 bomb cyclone. Snohomish County PUD reported a peak of approximately 166,000 customers without power — about 44% of its customer base — one of the largest events in the utility’s history. Some Snohomish County customers were out for days.
Same event, PSE territory. Puget Sound Energy reported more than 400,000 customers affected at peak with restoration timelines stretching 4-6 days in the hardest-hit areas.
December 2025 atmospheric rivers. A second wave of major outages across both utilities during the holiday weeks.

This is not a once-a-decade event anymore. If your business depends on the building, plan for the building to be cold and dark for several days at a time at least once a winter.

What Does a UPS Actually Buy You?

A common mistake: treating a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) like a small generator. It is not. A UPS is a bridge, not a destination.

The honest math, using a common business-grade unit as an example:

A 1500VA UPS delivers roughly 900 watts of real load capacity.
At half load (about 450 watts) you can expect 10-15 minutes of runtime. At full load, you get 4-7 minutes. Larger units scale up linearly.
A typical small business server, switch, and firewall draw together often hits 300-500 watts. That puts most office racks in the 10-20 minute runtime zone on a 1500VA UPS — enough for clean shutdown, not enough for sustained operation.

What that means in practice:

Every server, every switch, every firewall, and your primary internet equipment belongs on a UPS. The job is to prevent the dirty crash that corrupts databases and file systems.
Configure automated shutdown. Your UPS should signal your servers to shut down gracefully before the battery runs out — not at zero seconds, but at a configurable threshold (often 5-10 minutes remaining).
Replace batteries on schedule. UPS batteries degrade. A unit that gave you 15 minutes when new gives you 4 minutes at year five. Plan for replacement on a 3-5 year cycle.

When Does a Generator Actually Make Sense?

This is where PNW small businesses spend a lot of money on the wrong answer. A generator is a real solution for some businesses and overkill for many others. The honest tier breakdown:

Portable generators ($500-3,000). Useful for a single server rack and lights. Require manual setup, fuel management, and extension cords across the parking lot. Not realistic for a business that needs to keep operating safely and quietly for days. Carbon monoxide risk is non-trivial.
Small standby generators ($2,500-4,000 hardware, plus installation). Typically 7-12kW. Can run essential office circuits, a small server room, and limited HVAC. Installation including transfer switch and gas hookup typically doubles the hardware cost.
Mid-tier standby generators ($9,000-15,000 hardware, plus installation). 20-25kW range, capable of running a small office building including server room cooling and full lighting. Installation, permitting, gas-line work, and concrete pad bring real total cost well above the hardware sticker.

Generators also require fuel — natural gas if you have a line, propane or diesel otherwise — and they need to be exercised regularly. A generator that runs for the first time in 18 months when the storm hits is a generator that often does not run.

For a business with on-premises servers, phones tied to the building, and staff who must be on-site, a generator can be the right answer. For most other small businesses, there is a cheaper, more reliable strategy hiding in plain sight.

When Does Cloud Migration Beat a Generator?

For most 5-to-50-person businesses in Western Washington, the math comes out the same way: the money that would buy a mid-tier standby generator with installation is better spent making the office optional.

The cloud-first alternative looks like this:

Business applications run in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace or hosted services. When the building loses power, the apps do not.
File storage is cloud-replicated. SharePoint, Google Drive, or a cloud-backed file service. See our backup testing guidance.
Phones are cloud VoIP with cell-phone failover and a softphone app on every laptop. When the office phone system is dark, the same extensions ring on staff phones.
Every employee has a laptop. With charged batteries and the cellular hotspot capability they may need.
Conditional access and secure remote access are tested. Staff can sign in from home, from a relative’s house, or from a coffee shop that still has power.

When the lights go out at the office in this model, staff text the group chat, drive home (or to wherever the power is on), and keep working. The office is now an amenity, not a dependency. This is also the foundation of how PNW businesses survive wildfire smoke season — the same playbook, different cause.

A side note for client-facing businesses: clients are far more forgiving of “we are operating remotely today” than they are of “we cannot reach our systems for three days.” The first is normal. The second is a reputation event.

How Should You Decide Between Generator and Cloud?

A practical decision framework:

Does your business require physical presence at the office to operate? Medical practice, retail floor, manufacturing, restaurant — yes. Professional services, knowledge work, most office businesses — generally no.
Where do your critical applications run today? If most workloads are already cloud-hosted, a generator is solving a problem you mostly do not have. If you have a closet full of on-prem servers, your dependency is real.
How long can your business afford to be unavailable from this building? Hours, days, or weeks? The answer shapes the investment.
What is your insurance posture? Business interruption insurance covers some, but not all, outage scenarios. Talk to your broker.

For the businesses that genuinely need a generator, get one — and right-size it. For the businesses that have been planning to buy one “someday,” consider whether the same dollars routed to cloud migration and laptops would deliver better continuity at lower ongoing cost.

ROI Technology helps Snohomish County and Western Washington businesses choose the right continuity strategy — UPS, generator, cloud, or all three — without overpaying for the wrong one. Talk to us about power outage planning or call (888) 707-3652.