ABI Research Expects Power Quality Market Growth

Jul 1, 2004 3:45 PM
Edited by PETech Staff

Before Sept. 11, 2001, electrical power industry watchers recognized that the distribution systems in many industrialized regions—particularly North America—had problems. Business and industry, however, didn't pay too much attention.

After Sept. 11, security concerns—combined with the massive blackouts of August 2003 (not just in the eastern U.S. and Canada, but also in Italy, Denmark and the United Kingdom)—forced enterprise planners to focus on the quality of their power supplies.

According to ABI Research's director of energy research, Atakan Ozbek, this is especially true of high-end energy consumers: financial institutions, Wall Street investors, insurance companies, credit card processors, airlines and large manufacturers, such as those making semiconductor chips. "In the event of power failure," says Ozbek, "they could lose millions of dollars in a matter of minutes." This applies, he says, even to multinationals doing their manufacturing in low-wage countries that often have poor power distribution networks.

Governments are increasingly playing a role in the effort to improve power quality, driven in the United States by the mandates of the Department of Homeland Security.

So, ensuring the quality of the electricity supply has become big business: $6.5 billion in 2003 revenues, according to a new report from ABI Research entitled "Power Quality Markets: Global Analysis and Revenue Forecasts for UPS, TVSS, Filters, & Power Monitoring." According to the report, revenues in this sector are set to rise to $9.4 billion by 2011.

The study contains a broad, strategic overview of the power quality industry based on revenues, and breaks down the results by equipment category and subcategory. These include the biggest revenue earner, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS); TVSS (transient voltage surge suppressors); harmonic filters; voltage regulators; and power analyzers. The report further surveys revenues by end-user, and by region.

For more information, visit www.abiresearch.com/reports/PQM.html.