When these companies are so big and we are talking about such massive amounts of money when things go wrong (which they seem to regularly too), why on earth don't they have a giant Tesla Powerwall like the Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Australia? It would cost next to nothing compared to these losses and could run them for a good few hours if it needs to.
Considering the losses from a power outage, I'm sure they had some batteries and generators as a backup. But sometimes they fail when you need them the most. For example, in Florida datacenters, before a hurricane, they start the generators and switch to them before the hurricane hits, and switch back to utility power when they are sure the danger has passed.
But for an unexpected utility power outage, you usually have a few minutes of battery power, in which the generators should be able to start and take the load. If they don't start, or they start but there is some kind of problem switching to them, it's over. Of course, they should be tested properly regularly, be of good quality depending on the risk, but even then there is a risk something will fail when the time comes.
Of course, in the end it's a matter of costs. With more money you can have a more reliable system. I'm sure they had something, but clearly it was not enough, or there was human error involved. Or both.
