District Energy & Thermal Network Equipment worked example

Downtime Cost at 58% outage exposure included: a worked example in district energy & thermal network equipment

Suppose outage exposure included falls to 58%. This page works the full calculation at that level so you can see exactly which result moves and by how much. Estimate financial exposure from district heating, cooling, or central plant downtime using affected load, outage cost basis, probability or scope, and fixed response cost.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Affected thermal load or customer-hours: 100 MW-hr, ton-hr, or customer-hr (held at the documented default)
  • Downtime cost per exposure unit: 45 $ / unit (held at the documented default)
  • Outage exposure included: 58 % (the input this scenario stresses; the baseline uses 80)
  • Fixed emergency response cost: 250 $ (held at the documented default)

Working through the calculation

  • The calculation starts from the formula this tool documents: Included variable downtime cost = affected thermal load or customer-hours × downtime cost per exposure unit × outage exposure included.
  • Total downtime cost works out to 2,860 $ at these inputs, and this is the headline figure for the scenario.
  • Downtime cost per exposure unit works out to 28.6 $ / piece at these inputs.
  • Included variable downtime cost works out to 2,610 $ at these inputs.
  • Fixed emergency response cost works out to 250 $ at these inputs.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where outage exposure included sits at 80% and the headline result is 3,850 $, this scenario comes in 25.71% below the baseline at 2,860 $.
  • It multiplies affected thermal load or customer-hours by a downtime cost per unit and the included exposure percentage, then adds a fixed emergency response cost to give total downtime cost. When the numbers land here, the stressed input is the lever to work; the walkthrough above shows exactly how much each output recovers as it climbs back toward the baseline.

Results at a glance

  • Total downtime cost: 2,860 $ (headline result)
  • Downtime cost per exposure unit: 28.6 $ / piece
  • Included variable downtime cost: 2,610 $
  • Fixed emergency response cost: 250 $

Run it with your numbers

  • To rerun this with your own numbers, open the live Downtime Cost calculator, set outage exposure included to your actual value, and adjust the remaining inputs to match your operation.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.