The value of lost load in electricity intensive industry – combining and comparing stated and production value approaches

The value of lost load (VoLL) is a monetary metric quantifying the cost of unsupplied energy (€/kWh) during outages, providing valuable insights for policymakers, utility providers, and industrial stakeholders. Leveraging a mixed-method approach that integrates and compares survey data with publicly available microeconomic data insights, results show how value-added based measures significantly underestimate the financial impact of power outages. Shorter outages are found to be disproportionately costly, primarily due to high fixed costs associated with initial disruptions. Businesses report that the effects of a 1-h outage could linger for months, with some unable to fully recover even 12 months after the event. These extended disruptions underscore the enduring consequences of power outages, particularly for electricity-intensive industries. In a regression type of approach, the cost of power interruptions is not significantly influenced by the type of industry. Instead, the economic impact of an outage is more closely tied to the volume of electricity consumed, duration and production hours. Highlighting sectoral aspects and methodological sensitivities, the paper offers relevant insights for setting reliability standards, designing compensation schemes, and for guiding infrastructure investment.