Consider the various ways each critical load could fail, causing a disruption. Different critical loads may have different failure scenarios, each with their own combination of failure frequency and disruption duration. Failure scenarios may be created only for critical loads defined as equipment, assets, or systems. These scenarios should focus on failures inherent to the characteristics of the critical load, rather than on failures caused by externally initiated, discrete events (e.g., earthquakes or high winds). Because these external events can also cause energy and/or water outages, including them in load failure scenarios may lead to overestimating risk.

For each failure scenario, enter the estimated failure frequency and answer all remaining questions to obtain an estimated disruption duration. Then, select at least one critical load to which the scenario applies. More than one critical load may be selected if multiple loads share the same failure frequency and disruption duration characteristics.