Load shedding: backup power for your network cabinet
Which equipment needs backup power to keep your business online during load shedding.
Many businesses have a UPS on the router and still lose connectivity during load shedding, usually because one piece of equipment was left off the backup supply.
Equipment to include
- The fibre or wireless termination unit, which is often a separate box
- The router
- The network switch
- The Wi-Fi access point, if staff or the card machine use Wi-Fi
- The card payment terminal, if it runs on mains power
If any one of these loses power, the rest of the equipment cannot connect.
Battery runtime
A UPS that runs for ten minutes covers a brief outage and will not last through a load-shedding slot. Size the battery for the longest scheduled outage you need to trade through, with a margin.
Testing
Switch off the mains on a quiet morning and check what stays online. The test takes about ten minutes and is better done on a quiet weekday than during a busy Saturday.
