By R. Bruce Wright, CPCU
Many of the utilities we visit have invested in on-site generation capacity for their own facilities, not for resale, but to serve as a source of emergency power for their own buildings in the event of an outage that affects their own supply sources. Perhaps your system has already done so. If not, it is likely to be something you have considered and will consider again in the future. 
When selecting a backup generation system, the range of options will require that you make many decisions cross a wide variety of choices. One early decision that must be faced is how much capacity you want to buy. As we all know, more power equals more money, both in the initial unit and in the higher consumption rates for the fuel supply selected. And, higher fuel consumption may limit the length of the outage the system can handle.
So, some systems we visit have decided to power their entire sites completely, to bite the bullet on generator costs, and invest in a large fuel tank to kept it running for the length of time they estimate as the “maximum probable” outage. Others have decided to take a less costly approach and provide backup power to only essential services like their heating and cooling systems, the computers and selected other applications, often including only partial backup to the offices. This may limit the circuits powered by the backup system, leaving other outlets un-powered. 
But, in an emergency, it is not a terrific idea to have employees crawling about on their hands and knees trying to figure out which outlets are “live” and which are not. A cooperative I visited recently had replace the face plates for all their backup powered office outlets with red ones to identify “live” outlets that their generator will power. As a result, it is simple to figure out where to plug in the laptop or other piece of equipment an office worker needs to have to support restoration efforts. 
If you decide to purchase a backup power system that doesn’t power every outlet, this is a great way to reduce confusion if the system is needed. Red equals hot makes sense to me!