Since an oil shortage is not the only possible reason for a long term power outage institutions need to develop low and no power operational protocols. Obviously, back up power should be used differently, depending upon how long the term of a power outage is expected to be. A hospital, for example, shouldn't plan to run it's backup generators, to provide full service, when the outage is expected to exceed the ability to sustain power. Instead you want to identify what power can be cut and/or provided, for how long to each of several zones of operations Use of mirrors to utilize sunlight to illuminate low power operating zones, or concentrate it for sterilization functions. Thereby conserving power for the hospitals most critical operations, like keeping the billing dept. computers running (joke).
A collection of articles defining our times. The pages contain clickable links, don't let the titles fool you, some of the best articles have very non-descript titles and there are usually more articles on the matters in the days and week pages the links land on so it's a sort of treasure hunt through history, Enjoy!