The expert told about ways to protect yourself from an unexpected power failure

In order to protect yourself from an unexpected power failure, it is necessary to use various ways to obtain and store additional, backup electricity, Kristina Vishnevetskaya, Business Development Director at Ippon, told Izvestia on February 19.

"One such way is an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), a device that protects electrical equipment from power outages and problems in the power grid. A UPS helps prevent the loss of important data or avoid damage to expensive equipment when network failures occur," the expert explained.

According to her, during normal operation of the power grid, the UPS charges its battery and at the same time provides the correct output voltage for the devices connected to it. If there is a power outage, the UPS instantly switches to its battery, continuing to provide energy to devices and protecting them from disconnection. Also, in case of surges in the mains voltage arising due to various reasons, the UPS deals with its correction and gives the correct voltage at the output without causing any damage to the connected equipment.

"Before selecting a suitable UPS, first of all, it is necessary to evaluate the power consumption of the equipment and determine the primary task of keeping the uninterrupted operation of an individual or a business as a whole. The main issue that significantly determines the cost of such a solution is the required autonomy time. Is it necessary to keep the autonomy for a long period of time until the power supply is restored or is it required 5-10 minutes to properly shut down the devices?" - Vishnevetskaya added.

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The expert specified that currently many telecom operators at all their critical communication nodes use uninterruptible power supplies with high-capacity batteries to ensure long uptime in the absence of power. Sometimes the autonomy time at such sites can go up to 12-18 hours due to their remoteness.

"Whether this becomes a ubiquitous trend, time will tell. All large businesses, such as data centers, where system downtime is fraught not only with reputational losses, but also with significant monetary losses, cannot allow a single minute of downtime! At such facilities, UPS go hand in hand with powerful diesel generator sets to ensure 24/7 operation, as well as a staff capable of eliminating power loss problems as soon as possible," the specialist emphasized.

In early December last year, it was reported that the debt of consumers for electricity from January 1 to October 1, 2024 increased by 7% and amounted to 344.9 billion rubles. And the amount of arrears for a month or more amounted to 219 billion rubles. This is stated in the documents of the Ministry of Construction for the meeting with Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, which was held in late November.