Understanding where UPS are required.

Following on from our last UPS basics post, today we thought we would cover where UPS are required within business/power continuity plans.

All loads (things that require power) can be segmented into groups when it comes to power or business continuity. Three groups which will help you define whether UPS should be used at all, or any other emergency power device.

They are:

• Critical

• Essential

• Non-essential

Critical devices/loads are things businesses cannot do without, even for a moment. Commonly, IT devices, financial systems, hospitals, CCTV, etc. would more than likely fall into this bracket.

Essential devices could be things such as air conditioning, routers, roller doors, etc may fall into this group.

Non-essential things such as general lighting, printers/scanners, televisions, etc. might be considered within this group.

Identifying whether critical or essential devices require UPS protection is one of the first steps to make before moving forward with discussions for emergency power solutions. What is the impact to you should the mains fail/be disrupted. Which devices are critical to how you operate, and do they need power? Once established, separating these loads into their own electrical pathway will allow for a centralised UPS system to support all these devices. Alternatively, you can protect smaller groups of critical devices with a distributed network of UPS systems, locally to each area of your business.

Considerations in terms of changing electrical infrastructure are required, as they can be costly. The long-term benefit of having a centralised UPS system is lower TCO.

For more information about distributed UPS protection, centralised UPS protection, what considerations to make when building your business continuity plan or anything else UPS related, get in touch with our sales team today.