WITH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY pervading every business and industry, there is a rising need for constant power supply. With the threat of a possible surge or outage that can interrupt or even cripple business operations, more people are protecting their electronic devices with uninterruptible power supplies (UPS).

New Frost & Sullivan analysis of North American three-phase UPS sales reveals that the market earned revenues of $989.9 million in 2005 and estimates this to reach $1.37 billion in 2012.

As a result, operators in charge of networks are actively reassessing electrical systems to ensure adequate availability of power supply. Concerns are not just limited to power supply, but also to power quality. UPS systems are widely being deployed to ensure that the equipment is protected against damages caused by voltage fluctuations, harmonics and complete power outages.

“This is especially vital since most businesses are upgrading to advanced solutions to keep up with constantly evolving technology,” said Farah Saeed, Frost & Sullivan program manager. “Most prominent would be the data center scenario, where companies are either upgrading existing or constructing new centers to match demand for improved storage capacity, wider bandwidth, faster transmission as well as to reduce existing costs.”

In addition, as data centers and networks increase in complexity, UPS companies are now operating as system integrators. The companies are encouraging customers to outsource complete power quality management or update to state-of-the-art UPS versions that offer modularity, scalability, redundancy and monitoring capability.

 “The majority of tier-one UPS manufacturers are concentrating on offering integrated solutions covering almost every infrastructure element in a network, including cooling, racks, backup power, power distribution units (PDU), monitoring capabilities and services,” Saeed said.

Such system upgrades also extend to sectors such as healthcare and financial services that are internally reorganizing themselves, deploying IT systems to boost efficiency.

Heightened requirements backed further by stipulations laid down by institutions such as the National Fire Protection Association and the health insurance portability and accountability act (HIPAA) will ensure that the UPS market will continue to witness immense growth in the near future.

For more information, see “UPS Systems: Who Really Needs One?” by Darlene Bremer on page 78.            EC