22 ENGINEERING INSURANCE
The unexpectedly
severe weather
which af_f ected much
of the UK this year
is a reminder to
businesses that they
need to understand
and anticipate these
issues now to protect
vital equipment and
their operations from
failures in future, says
Thomas Howe, chief
underwriter for HSB
Engineering
Preparation
is everything
The snow storms that were
Many of the businesses that were forced to the UK, with the proliferation of power-hungry
unleashed as the New
close were faced with further disruption when, new technology, is that demands on energy
upon re-entering premises, they collectively are rising, placing an increasing strain on the
Year arrived created some found that equipment of central importance to UK’s ageing infrastructure. As the 12th largest
extraordinary scenes not seen for
their businesses had failed. electricity consumer in the world, the UK is
already running at an average of 94 per cent
almost 30 years. The disruption
Two months on it would be easy for businesses electricity production to consumption annually,
closed businesses and schools, to think the risk of equipment breakdown leaving little margin for outages or unexpected
much to the delight of children,
had melted away with the snow. However, surges in demand.
breakdowns are actually set to become even
but for everyone else it was a
more of an issue in the 21st Century as energy With energy issues increasingly impacting
reminder of how vulnerable we
diffi culties come to the fore. businesses, the need to mitigate and manage
can be at the hands of nature.
these risks more thoroughly is growing. There
This is a global problem but what it means for is much the broker can do to assist clients
Insurance Brokers’ Monthly February 2010
Regulation 22-23 + AD.indd 1 1/2/10 13:49:23
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36