The global uninterruptible power supply market will grow by US$1bn in 2011, as compared to last year, market research firm Pike Research predicts.

What drives this expansion is a growing need to protect electronic equipment from instability of the power grid. There is also less tolerance for downtime, as more and more IT infrastructure is moving into data centers, where standards for computing and storage reliability are high.

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Pike expects the market to expand from US$7.2bn in 2010 to $8.2bn in 2011 ÔÇô growing by 12.2%.

Pike president Clint Wheelock said leading vendors were responding to market need by focusing on increasing efficiency through innovation, such as introducing transformerless UPS systems. "Advances in battery technology are also benefiting UPS products by reducing cost and floorspace requirements," he added.

Because average sales value for UPS has somewhat declined, unit shipment growth will be higher than revenue growth, Wheelock said. The biggest portion of all UPS sales continued to be generated by small-capacity systems in the first half of 2011, but the large-UPS segment has won some market share from the traditionally dominating segment.

Pike expects a "handful of well-financed global manufacturers" to increase their lead in nearly all major markets. These companies are ready to make strategic acquisitions to strengthen their positions in key segments and regions.

Still, smaller "niche players" are seeing strong success, especially those that focus on the market's high end.