Schneider Electric Nigeria on Tuesday said it had rewarded five of its partners in the northern part of the country with various awards for their outstanding performances.
Oluwaseun Oloyede, Leader, Secure Power, English West Africa, Schneider Electric, said in a statement that the five northern partners were rewarded for contributions to their community, leveraging Schneider products and brands.
Oloyede said the event was also to update partners on the company’s latest offerings, latest portfolios, technologies, range of products, and solutions that addressed the needs of its customers.
“With the world going digital, there is a significant increase of sensitive electronic systems and devices that would require a guaranteed uptime and a very high protection.
“These devices and systems will have to rely on a foundation of regulated nonstop AC or DC power that only an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) can provide,” he said.
The Territory Manager, Northern Nigeria, Ado Abubakar, said energy users had three major power conditions to address.
Abubakar said they included surge inrush – instant damage to electric appliances; voltage volatility – chronic damage to electric appliances, and shortened life span of load equipment.
He said total blackout was a costly down time to business, caused irretrievable data loss and instant damage to electric appliances.
Abubakar noted that these conditions could be addressed through the use of surge protector, automatic voltage regulator and UPS.
According to him, surge protection is important, while short-term increases in voltage levels associated with lightning or utility problems, can travel along utility and data lines damaging electronic devices and destroying valuable data.
He said even smaller everyday surges could degrade the performance of electronics and shorten their lifespan.
He said surges could be caused by animals chewing electrical cables, natural causes such as lightning, restoration of AC mains power after a blackout, trees or environmental damage to power lines, and high energy motors in appliances.
Abubakar said average businesses suffered from about 14 hours of IT downtime per year.
Citing a survey by CA Technologies, small enterprises lose, on average, more than 55,000 dollars in revenue due to IT failures each year.
The northern awardee included Foretec Investment, Delawtech Computers, Infotech Bridges, Viable Solutions and Next Contact Technologies.