By Robert C. Degeneff

You’re the general manager of a beautiful Caribbean resort, and you’re facing a brownout. Again.

That means your non-essential systems are shutting down so the limited power you are getting can feed critical systems. If the supply is inconsistent, your compressors are also shutting off, so your refrigerators and freezers are down. Depending on the duration, food safety issues and restaurant closures loom on the horizon, and your front desk is flooded with calls and complaints. You’re issuing refunds, but even so, you can almost see your guest-service scores dropping.

In the meantime, your UPS systems and diesel generators are firing, but they’re noisy, smelly and costly.

Sound familiar?

In developed regions of the world, this scenario doesn’t happen often. But if you’re developing or managing a hotel, resort, casino or timeshare community in places where power quality is a prevalent issue—for example, the Caribbean, Central America and South America—that scenario may be frustratingly true to life.

But a new standard, electronic voltage regulators (EVRs) equipped with electronic on-load tap changers (OLTCs), provide an effective, economical and highly reliable solution for managing repeated electrical surges, swells, sags, and brownouts. EVRs sense even the smallest power fluctuation within a single cycle and immediately adjust electrical output, allowing properties to remain connected to the local grid through brownouts, sags and surges of any duration, while delivering full power to all guest services.

They also dramatically extend the working life of expensive electronic equipment and systems, while cutting reliance on diesel generators.

And at UST, we’ve crunched the numbers: EVRs can generate positive return on investment in two years or less.

To learn why UST’s power conditioners should be considered a standard component in your backup power systems—especially if you’re located in a region with an unreliable grid—I invite you to download our latest free white paper, “Quiet Generators. Happy Guests: The Economic Case for Adding Electronic Voltage Regulation to Backup Power Systems at Hotels, Resorts and Casinos,” at www.ustpower.com.