According to IMS Research, global uninterruptible power supply (UPS) revenues in Q1 2009 fell by nearly 25% from the same quarter last year, to under US$1.5 billion. This marks the second consecutive quarter of year-on-year decline.

Regionally, EMEA showed the sharpest pullback because of severe economic difficulties in most countries, but notably in Spain and Russia. This was exacerbated by an unfavorable currency exchange with the euro and pound weakening significantly against the US dollar. The American and Asian markets were not far behind, all falling by over 20%.

"The global economic crisis is taking its toll on this market by forcing users to delay upgrades and replacements. Additionally, new projects have been postponed with the uncertain market conditions and shortness of credit," explains analyst Donald Henschel. Henschel adds, "While government spending in selected environments is propping up revenues, new installations in most regions have slackened considerably."

Although the single-phase market has been damaged the most by the deep cutbacks in consumer and small business spending, the recent fast growth in sales of larger three-phase systems has been choked off. The longer lead time of higher kVA UPS units means that their sales were more insulated at the beginning of the recession, but they then saw a sudden and drastic fall as projects came to completion and new orders in the pipeline slowed.

This indicates that the recovery of this segment will lag the rest of the UPS market. Still, the high power market stands to see future growth driven by continued computing requirements, power quality issues, and infrastructure stimulus.