Power Protection FEATURED ARTICLE

Industry analyst Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) has just released a new report which indicates that a rather strong inflow of foreign investments, as well as European Union funds is making the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) market that much stronger. Despite that report, Frost and Sullivan believes that there is too much volatility in the market to keep growth at the rate it is currently seeing. The company believes that the UPS market is going to see a steep decline in prices over the next three years.

Frost and Sullivan says that the UPS market in Central and Eastern Europe saw total revenues topping $255 million in 2012 alone. The company believes that the number will grow to about $313.5 million by the end of 2017. Part of the reason for this growth is the apparent widening of the scope when it comes to the CEE UPS market. There are quite a few different projects that are falling under the UPS scope including public infrastructure and environmental end-user projects.

While this widening of the scope is mostly a good thing, pricing that has limited the margins for UPS manufacturers is hampering the market. European and Asian manufacturers are offering up low priced products, but those low prices are also coming with some pretty low quality goods. The fallout from this approach could harm the UPS market in the long run.  The hike in pricing when it comes to goods like copper is also hurting the market.

"To combat these challenges and maintain their stronghold, established UPS companies employ two key strategies," said Frost & Sullivan Energy and Environmental Industry Analyst Gautham Gnanajothi. "One includes incorporating hi-tech features in their products to eliminate competition from low-cost manufacturers."

Because of these factors, the UPS market is moving towards making more efficient and smaller solutions. More end users are starting to favor systems that deliver as much power as possible with as small a footprint as is allowed. Transformerless UPS technologies fit this bill and will only get more popular over the next few years.