Blackout in Central Yerevan: What a Power Outage Costs a Business

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Today's power outage in central Yerevan once again showed how much modern business depends on a stable electricity supply. For a shop, café or restaurant, a few hours without power is not just a dark room — it means lost sales and potentially extra costs.

About this article. We do not discuss the cause or duration of today's outage — we have no confirmed information. All figures in this article are hypothetical examples used to explain the economics of downtime, not data from real businesses.

No Power = No Sales

A modern retail outlet is built so that almost every step of a sale depends on electricity. When the power goes out, the problem is not limited to lighting:

• The cash register stops working. There is nothing to ring up a purchase on, or it takes noticeably longer.
• POS terminals and other equipment may stop working. For many customers, paying by card is the only habitual way to pay.
• Customers do not want to wait, and they leave. Most often, to a competitor that still has power.
• Staff cannot work properly. The usual tools are unavailable, and the shop floor turns into a waiting room.
• Equipment sits idle. Refrigerated displays, air conditioning, ventilation, signage — all of it stops working for the business.
• Costs do not stop. Rent, salaries and other fixed payments keep accruing while revenue is zero or reduced.

That last point is what makes downtime painful: a business cannot "pause" its costs while the power is off.

For a Restaurant, Downtime Can Cost Even More

A restaurant depends on electricity in more ways than an ordinary shop, and the consequences of an outage do not end when the power returns.

• The kitchen depends on electricity. A significant share of the equipment runs on mains power: extraction hoods, combi ovens, coffee machines, dishwashers.
• Refrigeration and freezer equipment must run continuously. It is the basis of safe food storage.
• A prolonged outage creates a risk of food spoilage. And that means direct losses on purchasing costs.
• Guests have already arrived and expect service. Tables are occupied, orders are taken, and the kitchen cannot operate normally.
• Reservations get cancelled. Some guests will choose a place that has power.
• An unhappy customer may never return.

As a result, a restaurant loses not only tonight's check but also potential future revenue: repeat visits, recommendations, reputation.

An important caveat: food spoilage is a risk. It depends on the length of the outage, the type of equipment and how often the cold rooms are opened. But even the possibility of such losses is a reason to calculate them in advance, not at the moment the lights go out.

The Key Question Is Not What a Generator Costs, but What an Hour of Downtime Costs

The conversation about backup power usually starts with the price of the equipment. That is an awkward starting point: it only shows the cost side. It is more useful to start from the other side of the equation — how much the business loses for every hour without power.

If a business earns on average X dram of revenue per hour, then several hours of downtime potentially mean a loss of X × the number of hours. On top of that come additional costs — for example, possible spoilage of goods or food — and what is hardest to measure: customers who do not come back.

Hypothetical examples

Restaurant. Suppose a restaurant earns on average 200,000 AMD of revenue per evening. If an outage prevents it from operating normally for several hours, the cost of the problem may exceed the cost of the fuel alone for a generator.

Shop. Suppose a shop in the city center earns on average 25,000 AMD per hour. If sales stop for four hours, roughly 100,000 AMD of revenue is at risk in a single incident — while rent and salaries for those hours do not go anywhere.

Both examples do not include spoiled goods, cancelled reservations, lost regular customers or reputation — the real cost of downtime may be higher. Enter the figures for your own business:

A Generator Is Not an Expense — It Protects Profit

A generator lets you keep critical equipment running and continue serving customers during an outage: cash registers and terminals, lighting, refrigeration, the kitchen — depending on what is connected to the backup line.

Buying a generator just because "the power sometimes goes out" is the wrong logic. It is better to calculate the cost of downtime and compare it with the cost of backup power.

Where to Start When Planning Backup Power

1. Identify critical loads: what must keep working (cash register, terminals, lighting, refrigeration, kitchen) and what can be switched off during downtime.
2. Estimate the total power of those loads, bearing in mind that equipment with electric motors — for example, refrigeration compressors — draws more at start-up than during normal operation.
3. Decide how the generator will connect to the site's electrical system and whether you need automatic start or manual start is enough.
4. Plan the installation location: ventilation, noise, fuel storage, requirements of the landlord or the building management company.
5. Compare the result with the cost of downtime from the calculation above.

Backup Power from Wayland Armenia

Wayland Armenia is the official authorized dealer of Atlas Copco in Armenia. We supply Atlas Copco diesel generators for business and industrial sites: the current models are collected in the Generators section of the catalog.

A diesel generator is a classic backup power solution for a shop, café, restaurant, warehouse or production site. If you are considering where to buy a generator in Yerevan or elsewhere in Armenia, start not with the model but with a load calculation: the power and configuration are determined by the specific site and the equipment connected, not just the type of business. A generator for a restaurant and a generator for a shop are usually built around different critical loads — so they should be selected differently.

The company's service offering — field service, scheduled maintenance and spare parts supply — is described in the Service section. Please ask a manager how it applies to a specific model.

Charging stations are a separate topic. Atlas Copco FCS 220-240 is a mobile station for charging electric construction and mining equipment (see also the catalog section Charging stations). It solves a different problem and is not a replacement for a generator for a shop or restaurant.