Been there but didn't do that. We live in an area prone to power outages at the lightest wind. Our power company C(rappy) P(ower) and L(ight), now merged to a mega utility with Duke Power, used to blam power outages on the wisteria vines (cut the damn vines down), squirrels (heck just shoot them), and other stupid excuses. Once had power for part of the house but not the rest. Called CP&L and was told I had "partial power." At 2:30 AM I was not in the mood for humor and told them, "Fine, when I get my bill I'll just make a partial payment and we will call it even.
Now the wife runs a business from home. These outages became so frequent and shut her down so often that we opted for a small generator to keep her business running when the power went out. Well this is an old house we live in. It has had numerous additions/rehabs, including some done by us. There are two breaker panels in the basement and sure enough, we would have to rewire them to put all the rooms where business is conducted onto the back-up generator. So the small generator turned into a whole house generator, if I recall its a 17.5 KW using a GM V-6 running on natural gas. The neighbors have an open invite to come sit awhile until the power comes back on. The install has an automatic disconnect from the grid when it detects power out for 30 seconds, the disconnect then triggers a start circuit for the generator automatically. Once power is restored, the system detects the power and shuts down the generator and reconnects to the grid automatically. We have UPS battery back ups with surge protection on all our computers. In fact the generator system has a whole house surge protection device. Works really well.