On Monday 28th April 2025, an enormous power outage affected homes, businesses, and public services across much of mainland Spain and Portugal, leaving some people without electricity for up to 24 hours. The power blackout hit at rush hour in many Spanish cities, causing panic among commuters as all trains suddenly ground to a halt, traffic lights switched off, and major railway stations and airports were left completely without power.
Thousands of businesses and shops were unable to operate, and many mobile phone and Internet services also went off-line, leaving people unable to communicate with their friends, family, and colleagues.
The incident was, to date, the largest wide scale power blackout to impact a major European power grid, and it carries various warnings for those of us in the UK and other countries. British businesses wouldn’t need a similar catastrophic blackout of the UK national grid in order to be affected by a similar occurrence in parts of Europe or even the USA.
During the Iberian peninsular blackout, for instance, Internet users in Morocco and even Greenland experienced network problems due to servers in Spain being taken off-line, and one of the reactors at the Golfech Nuclear Power Plant in France had to be disconnected due to its dependence on the Spanish grid.
It’s easy to speculate on how a blackout in Virginia, USA, or Shanghai, China, home to many of the world’s largest data centres, could have cascading effects on businesses throughout the world.
Businesses can shield themselves from power oscillations and outages by investing in an uninterruptible power supply, or UPS system.
Let’s find out more about these crucial continuity and business resilience assets.
An uninterruptible power supply is a backup energy system that bridges the gap between a power outage or disruption, and the restoration of electricity. This is different to having a backup generator. A generator is designed to provide long-term power backup independent of the mains electrical supply. Generators are normally powered by diesel, petrol, or natural gas, and require activation – either manual or automatic – following a power outage.
A UPS device, on the other hand, provides immediate short-term power during an interruption. The UPS usually sits between the mains power socket and your vital IT equipment, or can be integrated directly into your electrical system. It uses a battery to supply power for a relatively short period, allowing your systems to remain operational until another backup source activates (e.g. a generator), mains power is restored, or an orderly shutdown is possible.
This depends on your UPS device. Small UPS systems sold for home or office use typically give 5 to 30 minutes of backup power depending on your connected devices. This may be sufficient for a home office, but isn’t usually appropriate for a larger business. For an SME, a mid-capacity UPS could deliver backup power from 15 minutes to a full working day, depending on the battery capacity, while a large enterprise system designed for data centres or critical infrastructure can often give 4 to 16 hours or more of backup power, and are often paired with generators for extended backup capacity.
The main advantage of a UPS for IT infrastructure is the availability of an instantaneous power supply, the moment that the UPS detects an issue with the mains power source. This immediate response prevents any downtime or disruption to your IT systems, making it perfect for important servers, business-critical applications, and any system that requires continuous operation. This instantaneous availability is essential because, during a sudden blackout, IT systems often shutdown improperly, leading to unsaved data being lost, and open files and programs becoming corrupted. This increases your recovery time and expense, and can cause potentially irreversible damage to important business assets and data.
For this reason alone, a UPS is a potent disaster recovery asset, but it can also provide value by cushioning your applications against voltage fluctuations, spikes, or surges that could damage sensitive IT equipment or corrupt data files.
Any business that relies on important IT infrastructure or software could potentially benefit from investing in a UPS. However, an uninterruptible power source is especially important for e-commerce businesses and software as a service (SaaS) vendors, keeping your critical servers operational during an outage and making sure that none of your customers’ data is lost during a sudden shutdown.
Organisations that rely on machines with sensitive control systems also benefit from UPS units to avoid the risk of an abrupt shutdown, which might otherwise harm equipment or disrupt operations. This can be beneficial for hospitals and healthcare organisations, as well as many manufacturers. As well as this, many SMEs would benefit from investing in a UPS for their vital systems, avoiding disruption during power failures and fluctuations.
To find out more about UPS systems and how your business could benefit, please get in touch with the knowledgeable team at Vantage IT today by clicking here.
Image source: Canva
22/12/2025
