Modern day power outages: A wake-up call for modernising critical infrastructure

Energy and power grids are the backbone of critical infrastructure, but the resilience of these systems is under pressure. This makes field work and maintenance even more important, writes Alexander Gittens, Sales Manager at Getac Utilities & Energy.

In recent news, we have seen major power disruptions shake the foundation of critical infrastructure across Europe. Heathrow Airport experienced a significant systems failure, resulting in hundreds of flights being cancelled or significantly delayed. Just over four weeks later, a widespread power outage occurred across Spain and Portugal, leaving millions without electricity, halting transport services, and causing economic disturbance. Finally, shortly following these incidents, London was hit by power outages on the underground.

While the incidents differ in nature and investigations are ongoing, all highlight the importance of energy and power grids that underwrite critical infrastructure. The outages also demonstrate how critical infrastructure systems are increasingly interconnected, interdependent, and under pressure. When one part fails, the repercussions extend well beyond the sector or geography initially affected.

For governments and infrastructure operators across Europe, these events serve as stark reminders that the resilience of operational systems, particularly those built on legacy technology, can no longer be taken for granted.

This underscores the importance of evaluating field technologies used to maintain infrastructure, predict potential faults before failures occur, and repair power grids efficiently, while also highlighting the urgent need to modernise the tools that support frontline response and operational continuity.

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Energy resilience begins in the field

Legacy systems, many of which were built for simpler and more siloed operational environments, are now struggling to keep pace with modern infrastructure demands. In sectors such as energy and utilities, the risks posed by outdated technologies are becoming more acute.

Large portions of the national grid and emergency services still rely on ageing communications and control systems, risks that are particularly pressing across Europe, where infrastructure maturity varies significantly from country to country. Around 40% of the electricity grid is over 40 years old and nearing the end of its expected lifespan, posing a widespread challenge across Europe.

While the EU is investing €23 billion annually in grid expansion and progressing with over 140 transmission projects, including cross-border initiatives, regional coordination and infrastructure upgrades, such as field technology for frontline workers, must remain a priority to meet future demand.

Upgrading legacy infrastructure is a long-term, capital-intensive process that often can't keep pace with evolving power demands. However, significant resilience gains can be achieved by investing in the technology used by field operatives.

As engineers, technicians and emergency responders are the first people on-site when systems go down, durable, connected and high-performance equipment is essential. When their tools fail due to poor connectivity, insufficient processing power or a lack of environmental durability, it can undermine power restoration efforts.

Upgrading field technology enables workers with real-time situational awareness, faster diagnostics and decentralised decision-making. This means frontline workers can keep working independently, even if the main systems go down, which is vital when handling failures that affect connected parts of a larger network.

Going beyond 'just infrastructure'

The recent outages underscore how deeply embedded modern day societies are within their critical infrastructure. They are essential to practically every aspect of life and commerce. When systems fail at places like airports, a knock-on effect is created, leading to missed business meetings, stranded passengers and downstream delays across the entire European aviation network. This is the same for power outages across a city, where everything from traffic lights and public transport to hospital operations and digital payments is affected.

This interdependence reveals the true cost of infrastructure failure. It is not merely downtime or repair bills. It is the temporary shutdown of entire economies and cities. A UK government report revealed the substantial economic impact of a disruption to the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), which underpin many digital and internet services, with a disruption of 24 hours costing the UK economy £1.42 billion.

Field technology helps safeguard these systems and minimise the likelihood of this happening. With GNSS-enabled software for location tracking and route planning, field workers can operate with speed and precision, even in the most demanding environments. Infrastructure resilience should not be treated as a sector-specific challenge and while governments are taking steps to reduce downtime and outages across critical national infrastructure, the burden still falls largely on energy companies and operators.

While control centres may be adopting AI-based optimisation and predictive analytics, the devices used in the field are often generations behind. This hampers agility and reduces the effectiveness of response operations. However, hardware progress continues to lower the barrier to entry for AI adoption in fieldwork.

The newest Intel processors bring on-device acceleration for neural workloads, while the maturity of the Android platform offers a secure, easily upgradable foundation for bespoke field-service applications. Technicians benefit from a familiar interface and a growing catalogue of specialist tools, such as augmented-reality work instructions, that can integrate with existing enterprise systems.

Keeping pace with rising performance demands

Field teams are operating in more demanding conditions than ever before. In the face of rising climate volatility and increasing cybersecurity threats, the ability to restore services quickly and safely is paramount. But the performance expectations placed on these teams, such as faster fault detection and on-the-spot decision-making, require tools that are just as capable and adaptive.

Standard commercial devices such as tablets, phones or laptops are ill-suited to the realities of fieldwork, as they may be vulnerable to environmental damage or have insufficient battery life for long shifts. Field-specific technology should offer a combination of ruggedness, interoperability and edge intelligence. This allows data to be processed locally, securely transmitted to central systems and acted upon without delay.
In emergency power restoration scenarios, engineers equipped with the right field tools can conduct diagnostics and report progress without needing to return to base.

This kind of agility shortens response times and can prevent small-scale faults from escalating into large-scale failures. As infrastructure digitalisation continues, ensuring field teams have technology that can keep pace is essential to improved operational results.

Reframing infrastructure resilience for a new era

These power outages serve as a clear call to action. Infrastructure resilience can no longer be measured solely by the robustness of centralised control systems or long-term capital projects. It must also account for the strength, flexibility and readiness of those who operate in the field, often under the most difficult circumstances.

Governments and infrastructure operators must reframe their approach by treating field technology as a critical enabler of resilience, not simply a procurement line item to be optimised for cost. The shift in thinking will be crucial to meeting the performance and power demands of modern-day society, protecting public safety and economic stability and in the face of future disruptions.

In an era where infrastructure is more connected and critical than ever, equipping frontline teams with modern, durable and intelligent technology is not just best practice. It is a fundamental requirement for operational continuity and public trust.

Tomorrow’s infrastructure won’t be judged by what it withstands, but by how fast it recovers. And that begins in the field.