What does a UPS consist of?

A UPS is essentially a series of batteries that maintains power to critical pieces of equipment that cannot withstand a power interruption. A UPS protects equipment from such elements as power interruptions, voltage variations, frequency varia-tions and transient disturbances.
As technology advances, more pieces of equipment require uninterruptible power, making a reliable UPS increasingly crucial in any facility. Upon losing utility power to a facility, it often can take 10 seconds or more for the generators to start and power to transfer to the emergency source. Most elec-tronic equipment will not tolerate more than a few cycles of power disruption without shutting down.
Minimizing disruptions to the power source starts during the power system’s design phase. A reliable power system de-pends on quality equipment and reliable design. A facility’s UPS should be designed to protect critical and high-tech equipment and to facilitate planned power outages so techni-cians can perform maintenance.