The Growing Importance of Power in Industrial Real Estate: Lessons from Heathrow’s Recent Outage

In the context of industrial real estate, power resilience is about more than just keeping the lights on. It’s about ensuring that operations run smoothly and that businesses are equipped to handle any disruptions, whether they come from external sources like grid failures or internal factors like maintenance issues. The recent power outage at Heathrow, serves as a stark reminder of how vulnerable critical infrastructure can be without adequate contingency plans.

For industrial real estate owners, the implications are clear. Buildings must be designed and equipped to withstand power disruptions. This means implementing backup systems, diversifying energy sources, and ensuring that energy infrastructure is scalable and flexible to meet the evolving needs of tenants. In many ways, power resilience has become an essential pillar of a building’s overall value proposition, one that goes beyond the basic specification of power supply and taps into the broader theme of operational continuity.

Sustainability is rightly a driving force in industrial real estate and, as such, the demand for power resilience is set to grow even further. The transition towards more electrical-based solutions—whether through electrification of industrial processes, the adoption of renewable energy systems, or the integration of electric vehicle charging and smart grids means that buildings will require ever more reliable and flexible power solutions. This shift increases the vulnerability of industrial operations to power disruptions, making resilience an even more critical aspect of a building’s energy infrastructure.

At the same time, sustainability efforts often hinge on the effective integration of renewable energy sources, like solar panels or wind turbines, which can sometimes be intermittent or less predictable than traditional energy supplies. This introduces a layer of complexity, where power resilience is needed not just to ensure reliability but to optimize and balance energy production and consumption. The more sustainable and electrically reliant a building becomes, the more it must prioritize resilience to avoid disruptions that could undermine its entire operational framework.

Industrial properties that can combine sustainability with superior power resilience will be best positioned for the future, meeting the increasing demand for both green credentials and uninterrupted energy. The result? A more sustainable, efficient, and robust energy infrastructure that supports tenant operations without compromising on performance.

The events at Heathrow serve as a reminder of the fragility of our interconnected infrastructure, but they also highlight an opportunity for forward-thinking real estate developers looking at resilient power strategies. As industries continue to innovate and evolve, the demand for more resilient, efficient, and sustainable power systems will only increase.

Power resilience and energy efficiency will continue to grow in importance in industrial real estate development  in the years to come. In a world where disruptions to business operations can have significant economic consequences, power infrastructure will no longer be an afterthought. It will be a critical factor in determining the long-term success of industrial properties, and, in turn, the businesses that rely on them.