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Guaranteeing continuity and quality of electricity supply in industry involves using a range of equipment, among which Uninterruptible Power Supply systems (UPS) stand out, as they are capable both of protecting assets against the numerous electrical disturbances and of continuing to supply power to installations in the event of a power cut. The significance of such disturbances is matched by their economic consequences: several years ago, the Spanish Association of the Electricity Industry estimated that interruptions to the electricity supply cost the country’s economy more than 6,000 million euros per year.

One particular feature of the industrial sector is its heterogeneous nature, encompassing everything from heavy machinery, furnaces and other very high loads to equipment that is much more sensitive to voltage variations, such as control systems, sensors and drives. This variability places an additional demand on UPS specifications, which must be versatile and facilitate scalability.

We should also take into account more recent trends such as Industry 4.0, which integrates data analysis, advanced automation and IoT connectivity into the production environment. This combination of disparate elements means that an unexpected power fluctuation can generate cascading inefficiencies and disruptions that compromise uptime and therefore the profitability and reputation of the industrial plant itself.

In view of these risks, there is a clear need to implement UPS systems based on online double-conversion technology capable of protecting all types of industrial processes, such as automation and control systems, continuous manufacturing systems, instruments and measuring devices, among many others. There are monolithic options, such as the SLC CUBE3+, which has the lowest THDi on the market, the SLC X-PERT and the SLC X-TRA. Modular alternatives include the SLC ADAPT2, which can be scaled according to the plant’s requirements. Its deployment mitigates disturbances such as undervoltage and voltage dips, overvoltage (transient or permanent), power cuts and micro-outages, harmonics, frequency fluctuations and transient bursts.

The effects of these electrical disturbances are highly varied: overheating of devices, intermittent operation and even process shutdown, as well as accelerated deterioration, unexpected restarts and irreversible physical damage. Some of these transient phenomena are, in fact, caused by industrial installations, specifically by the start-up of high-power motors or switching operations in the medium-voltage network.

For example, when a high-power induction motor is started, it can draw a current of up to five to eight times its rated value. This sharp and rapid increase in current causes voltage drops and fluctuations in the system. To mitigate this, it is advisable to install soft starters, variable-frequency drives and, in general, appropriate starting configurations.

This is just one example of a malfunction that can particularly affect equipment frequently found across all kinds of industrial sectors, such as PLCs (programmable logic controllers) and HMIs (human-machine interfaces). An interruption lasting just a few milliseconds is enough to destabilise software execution and cause communication errors that put operations at risk, potentially bringing the process to a halt.

Poor power quality causes cumulative damage that often goes unnoticed until its effects become apparent. This occurs with voltage drops, as explained above, and also with harmonics, which are caused by distortion of the voltage and current waveform due to the presence of non-linear loads. Excessive overheating of conductors and transformers shortens their service life, damages motor insulation and degrades other passive components.

Installing the appropriate UPS systems and ensuring that they are properly connected to the control systems is the best way to prevent all this. UPS systems provide an ideal solution when safety, economic viability and reputation are at stake in an industrial environment.