Plant Utilities worked example

Utility Shutdown Risk Score with production impact severity of 4 score: a worked example

This worked example runs the utility shutdown risk score numbers for a tougher week than the baseline: production impact severity of 4 score instead of the typical 8 score. Score plant utility shutdown risk from production severity, failure likelihood, and weakness in detection or redundancy.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Production impact severity: 4 score (the input this scenario stresses; the baseline uses 8)
  • Failure likelihood: 5 score (held at the documented default)
  • Detection and redundancy weakness: 4 score (held at the documented default)

Working through the calculation

  • The calculation starts from the formula this tool documents: Risk score = severity × 0.40 + likelihood × 0.35 + detection or redundancy weakness × 0.25.
  • Utility shutdown risk score works out to 4.35 score at these inputs, and this is the headline figure for the scenario.
  • Severity works out to 4 score at these inputs.
  • Occurrence works out to 5 score at these inputs.
  • Detection works out to 4 score at these inputs.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where production impact severity sits at 8 score and the headline result is 5.95 score, this scenario comes in 26.89% below the baseline at 4.35 score.
  • Use it to rank utility failure modes across a plant so limited reliability spend targets the highest-consequence, most-likely, least-protected systems first. A result at this level usually justifies acting on the stressed input before touching anything else, because every other figure in the table is downstream of it.

Results at a glance

  • Utility shutdown risk score: 4.35 score (headline result)
  • Severity: 4 score
  • Occurrence: 5 score
  • Detection: 4 score

Run it with your numbers

  • To rerun this with your own numbers, open the live Utility Shutdown Risk Score calculator, set production impact severity to your actual value, and adjust the remaining inputs to match your operation.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.