2025 is now firmly on track to become the second-hottest year on record, just behind the unprecedented extremes of 2024. Europe, again, has felt the full force of extreme weather, with Portugal recording a sweltering high of 46.6 °C.
As we head deeper into an era of prolonged heatwaves and erratic weather patterns, the resilience of critical infrastructure is being severely tested. Blackouts, brownouts, overloaded substations, transformer failures, and rising cooling loads aren’t rare cases anymore; they’re seasonal realities. If your business relies on constant power availability, ignoring the risks isn’t an option.
Extreme Heat, Failing Infrastructure, and the Rising Case for UPS-Based Resilience
Extreme heat drives an aggressive spike in demand for cooling systems across residential, commercial, and industrial buildings. This surge puts immediate strain on an already ageing power grid, often pushing distribution and transmission assets beyond their rated capacity.
In June and July 2025, across much of Europe, daily electricity demand jumped by as much as 14%. The consequences were clear: volatile pricing, supply instability, and record-breaking price spreads exceeding €400/MWh at peak hours.
Thermal generation wasn’t immune either. In France and Switzerland, power stations, particularly nuclear, were throttled back or temporarily shut down. High air and river temperatures interfered with cooling processes, triggering environmental safety thresholds. Without effective cooling, these plants couldn’t operate at full load, cutting off baseload supply right when it was needed most.
And while renewable energy is vital for long-term decarbonisation, extreme heat reduces its short-term reliability:
- Solar panels can lose between 10 and 25% efficiency as cell temperatures rise beyond optimum ranges.
- Wind turbines underperform during heatwaves due to low wind conditions that often accompany high-pressure systems.
These seasonal weaknesses compound. More heat means higher demand, less efficient generation, and tighter margins for error.
Why UPS Systems Are No Longer Optional
This rising pressure on infrastructure means Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) systems are now a critical component in any resilience strategy. Not just for hospitals and data centres, but for any business where downtime equals lost revenue, compromised safety, or reputational damage.
Here’s what UPS systems are designed to do, especially under summer stress:
- Instantly bridge power outages, keeping systems live during blackouts.
- Protect equipment from voltage fluctuations, surges, and brownouts caused by unstable grid conditions.
- Maintain uptime until generators kick in, or until grid supply is restored.
This isn’t theory, it’s already happening. In June 2025, intense heat followed by sudden storms exposed serious grid fragility. Cooling systems spiked consumption, renewable output dipped, substations overheated, and the combination of high load and weather-related faults caused widespread interruptions.
April’s Google Cloud outage, traced back to a UPS failure, made global headlines, disrupting customers across multiple services and regions. Then came the Iberian blackout in July, which hit parts of Spain, Portugal, and southern France. Heat-induced transformer failures, grid congestion, and poor backup provisioning left thousands of businesses offline for hours.
In both cases, the common thread was clear: inadequate UPS performance at a critical moment.
Proactive UPS Maintenance
Having a UPS in place isn’t enough. Just like any other high-performance system, your UPS needs to be monitored, tested, and maintained regularly:
- Battery health checks are crucial. A failing cell can compromise the entire system.
- Firmware updates ensure your system is operating to the manufacturer’s specifications.
- Load tests and thermal imaging can detect issues before they become failures.
Too many businesses only think about their UPS during an outage. That’s too late.
Why Heatwaves Will Intensify And Why Power Resilience Can’t Wait
With 2026 forecast to bring similar, if not worse, climate extremes, the pressure on infrastructure is only going to increase. Businesses that treat power continuity as an afterthought are going to find themselves exposed.
UPS systems are not a luxury. They are the last line of defence in an increasingly unreliable energy landscape.
Contact BCL Power today if you’re concerned about the health of your UPS system, or you need a full resilience assessment:
- Tailored UPS maintenance
- SFG20-compliant service packages
- 24/7 nationwide support
- UPS battery replacement
- Fault diagnostics
Power security isn’t optional. Make sure your UPS systems are ready.