How do you calculate SCADA outage cost?

Multiply outage hours by hourly operational cost by affected scope to get the variable loss, then add fixed recovery costs. For 10 hours at $14,500/hr, 70% affected, plus $22,000 fixed, the total is $123,500.

Why apply an affected-scope percentage?

A SCADA outage seldom stops every line. The 70% scope in the example means only 70% of the hourly cost actually accrues, so the variable loss is $101,500 rather than the full $145,000 — a more defensible figure.

What goes into the fixed recovery cost?

Incident response and forensics, server and image rebuilds, vendor emergency support, overtime, and any one-time cleanup or revalidation. In the example that fixed bucket is $22,000.

How is hourly operational cost determined?

It blends lost production margin, idle labor, spoilage, and SLA or contractual penalties per hour of downtime. Many plants land in the thousands to tens of thousands per hour; the example uses $14,500.

Can I use this for cyber-insurance sizing?

Yes. Running realistic outage durations through the model gives you a credible loss range to match against policy limits and deductibles, and the fixed-cost term captures the response spend insurers care about.

What's the difference between variable and total outage cost?

Variable cost is the time-driven production loss ($101,500 here); total cost adds the one-time fixed recovery spend ($22,000) for the full $123,500 impact.

Industrial Cybersecurity & OT Risk calculator

SCADA Outage Cost Calculator

SCADA Outage Cost quantifies the total financial hit when a supervisory control and data acquisition system goes down — whether from a cyberattack, server failure, or network fault. It combines the variable cost (outage hours times hourly operational loss times the share of operations actually affected) with the fixed recovery cost of incident response, forensics, and rebuild. Plant managers, OT risk owners, and finance teams use it to justify cybersecurity investment, set cyber-insurance coverage, and prioritize which SCADA assets warrant redundancy. Because a SCADA outage rarely halts 100% of operations at once, the affected-scope factor keeps the estimate honest rather than wildly overstated.

What this calculator does

Estimate SCADA outage cost using outage hours, cost per hour, affected scope, and fixed recovery cost.
Use it when evaluating SCADA server, HMI, historian, or operator visibility downtime exposure.
It multiplies outage hours, hourly operational cost, and affected scope into a variable loss, then adds the fixed recovery cost.

Formula used

Variable SCADA outage cost = SCADA outage hours × operational cost per outage hour × affected SCADA operating scope
Total SCADA outage cost = variable SCADA outage cost + fixed SCADA recovery cost

Inputs explained

SCADA outage hours:
Operational cost per outage hour:
Affected SCADA operating scope:
Fixed SCADA recovery cost:

How to use the result

Use it when building a cyber-risk business case, sizing OT cyber-insurance, or estimating the impact of a specific outage scenario.
It models a single flat hourly loss rate and scope, so cascading or escalating losses over a long outage may be understated.

Common questions

How do you calculate SCADA outage cost? Multiply outage hours by hourly operational cost by affected scope to get the variable loss, then add fixed recovery costs. For 10 hours at $14,500/hr, 70% affected, plus $22,000 fixed, the total is $123,500.
Why apply an affected-scope percentage? A SCADA outage seldom stops every line. The 70% scope in the example means only 70% of the hourly cost actually accrues, so the variable loss is $101,500 rather than the full $145,000 — a more defensible figure.
What goes into the fixed recovery cost? Incident response and forensics, server and image rebuilds, vendor emergency support, overtime, and any one-time cleanup or revalidation. In the example that fixed bucket is $22,000.
How is hourly operational cost determined? It blends lost production margin, idle labor, spoilage, and SLA or contractual penalties per hour of downtime. Many plants land in the thousands to tens of thousands per hour; the example uses $14,500.
Can I use this for cyber-insurance sizing? Yes. Running realistic outage durations through the model gives you a credible loss range to match against policy limits and deductibles, and the fixed-cost term captures the response spend insurers care about.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.