As those of us on the US East Coast swelter in over 100 degree heat there is a huge amount of stress being put onto the electrical grid. Situations like this are a good reminder that having/using power protection products Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) and Surge Suppression devices are a good idea.Here at VDC we have experienced at least 2 recent outages that were temporary but still disruptive.
As part of the research for the 2010 Power Protection Product Market report we have reached out to many users of power protection products. While most people know that data centers are an important market, retail stores and food supermarkets are a significant market as well. In many cases, we are finding that these entities use a multiple tiered protection approach. The Point of Sale (POS) terminals have individual UPS located at the checkout register. There also would be UPS holding the local network/server components. The whole store may have 2 types of power. One is backed up by a central UPS and the other is not. The central UPS is only designed to run until the backup generator is started which with modern units takes less than 1 minute to start up and stabilize. In this way, there is no interruption of sales activities and store lighting and the store's refrigeration units continue to ensure products do not spoil.
On days like today, there are several opportunities available to large enterprise level users of power. In some cases, manufacturers agree to suspend or shift production. In exchange, utilities may give a monetary incentive. In other cases, retail stores and supermarkets with state of the art UPS systems can agree to go off the grid in return for lower power rates during normal times. The power generated by a local system costs more but the savings long term can be significant. Retail stores and especially supermarkets operate on low margins and energy costs are a significant portion of costs. Finding savings here can be a big deal and a installing properly designed UPS system can create the opportunity.
As part of the research for the 2010 Power Protection Product Market report we have reached out to many users of power protection products. While most people know that data centers are an important market, retail stores and food supermarkets are a significant market as well. In many cases, we are finding that these entities use a multiple tiered protection approach. The Point of Sale (POS) terminals have individual UPS located at the checkout register. There also would be UPS holding the local network/server components. The whole store may have 2 types of power. One is backed up by a central UPS and the other is not. The central UPS is only designed to run until the backup generator is started which with modern units takes less than 1 minute to start up and stabilize. In this way, there is no interruption of sales activities and store lighting and the store's refrigeration units continue to ensure products do not spoil.
On days like today, there are several opportunities available to large enterprise level users of power. In some cases, manufacturers agree to suspend or shift production. In exchange, utilities may give a monetary incentive. In other cases, retail stores and supermarkets with state of the art UPS systems can agree to go off the grid in return for lower power rates during normal times. The power generated by a local system costs more but the savings long term can be significant. Retail stores and especially supermarkets operate on low margins and energy costs are a significant portion of costs. Finding savings here can be a big deal and a installing properly designed UPS system can create the opportunity.
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