High efficiency is the name of the power game today

Business Unity of South Africa recently stated that the ongoing power cuts had cost businesses, particularly SMEs, "millions of rand with no end in sight". On the back of this, Eskom has assured the country that rolling blackouts will continue until consumers decrease power usage.

This scenario presents both a challenge and an opportunity, says Christelle Larkins, Area Manager: South Africa, MGE Office Protection Systems. The challenge, she says, comes in ensuring it's business as usual when the lights go out, and the opportunity is to maximise energy cost savings through the employment of high-efficiency energy devices.

"It remains good practice to evaluate the power quality status of your business, to know what is at risk and to take the necessary steps to keep your business going during a power cut. While it is advisable to have a detailed assessment conducted by a trained professional, answering the following pertinent questions will give you a good indication of how at risk your business is of experiencing power quality problems," says Larkins.

* Do you have electronic equipment that is especially sensitive to power quality disturbances, like computers, laser printers and fax machines?
* Is your office building more than 10 years old? Older buildings were not designed to handle the demands of today's business equipment.
* Do you have equipment that operates 24 hours a day? The Highveld is notorious for its summer lightning storms. Lightning strikes are responsible for more than 10% of outages and other power quality disturbances.
* Do you have a modem line or coaxial cable entering your facility?
* Does your business have more than five users on a computer network system? The larger a computer network grows, the more susceptible a system becomes to power disturbances.
* Does your business lack adequate protection against power quality disturbances, like point-of-use surge suppressers and Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPSs) for critical equipment.

"If you answered "yes" to three or more of these questions, your business has a higher risk of experiencing power quality problems," says Larkins. "High availability power is the key to business continuity. Businesses must ensure they are protected against any type of power supply fault, and should proactively monitor power to ensure data integrity."

A good starting point is to determine which devices would benefit from continued operation in the event of a power outage and to then support these with a UPS. Larkins advises selecting a model with the option to add extra battery units to increase the runtime of critical devices. Also, protect and manage structured wiring and networking applications with a UPS that enables remote management of automation functions, and ensures protection in the event of a power outage.

Be aware though, she adds, that no matter what UPS system you select, there will be some energy lost between the utility and the output. However, high-efficiency UPS systems can dramatically limit the energy loss, resulting in substantial cost savings. Energy efficiency of a UPS can be expressed as the difference between the amount of energy that goes into a UPS versus the amount of useful energy that comes out of the UPS to power your loads.

"In all UPS systems, some amount of energy is lost as heat when it passes through the internal components. Just how much energy is lost between the input and output can be significant when you consider how much the wasted energy is costing. Energy efficiency advantages of as little as 1% between one UPS and another can translate into thousands of rands saved per year, depending on the size of the UPS."