"Despite backup generators, Airbus faced a critical fuel shortage. The company scrambled to order more diesel, but fuel suppliers were overwhelmed with calls from other affected customers. "We were a few hours from a datacenter shutdown," Jestin said. The stakes were high. Without datacenter access, production workers couldn't retrieve documentation or instructions. Even warehouse operations would have stalled if automated parts retrieval systems went offline. "Probably we could have survived one day," Jestin added, noting that the company resorted to manual workarounds."
"The incident has "triggered an improvement plan." Airbus is now ensuring adequate generator fuel reserves and priority supply contracts across its facilities in Spain, France, Germany, and the UK. The goal is to maintain operations for several days during a "massive blackout" without relying on external fuel deliveries. This may involve paying a premium for the fuel to power backup generators, yet pales into insignificance compared to the potential cost of halting a production line."
A ten-hour Iberian power outage caused by voltage surges knocked out traffic lights, forced metro evacuations, and affected Airbus's primary datacenter in Madrid. Backup generators operated but a critical diesel shortage left the datacenter hours from shutdown, forcing manual workarounds and risking loss of access to production documentation and automated warehouse systems. Airbus has launched an improvement plan to ensure adequate generator fuel reserves and priority supply contracts across facilities in Spain, France, Germany, and the UK. The plan accepts potential premium fuel costs to sustain operations for several days during a massive blackout. The outage stemmed from anomalous oscillations in very high voltage lines due to extreme interior Spain temperature variations.
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