Most of the devices that die this summer in Iraq do not die because they are old, they die because the power goes off and on ten times a day. Your PC shuts down mid-task, the router reboots halfway through a meeting, and the cameras lose the recording at exactly the minute you need it. The catch is that replacing a device now costs more than ever, so the smart question is not how much a new machine costs, it is how much it costs to protect the one you already have.
What is happening to power and prices at the same time
The numbers speak for themselves: the highest electricity output Iraq recorded in early 2026 was around 29,000 megawatts, against a summer peak demand estimated at 40,000 to 55,000 megawatts depending on the source. The result is scheduled cuts and wide gaps between provinces: in mid-July 2026, national supply in Baghdad averaged 8 to 10 hours a day, some provinces got no more than six hours, while Basra reached close to 20.
The causes run wider than any one household: Iranian gas flows stopped at the end of 2025 for technical reasons, then cut off entirely after the strikes on the South Pars field on 18 March, taking roughly 3,100 megawatts off the grid in one go. The Gulf electricity interconnection project everyone was counting on has slipped to the end of August 2026 at the earliest. In practice, running on a generator and switching back and forth with the national grid is now a daily routine rather than an exception, and every switch is a moment of blackout and a voltage spike on your equipment.
At the same time, the global hardware market is going through its worst memory crunch in years: RAM prices have jumped by as much as 89% during 2026, and DRAM alone rose around 90% in the first quarter compared with the last quarter of 2025, because AI data centres are swallowing an estimated 70% of high-end memory. IDC expects average PC prices to rise by up to 8% this year, and some manufacturers have warned of increases reaching 20%, with a few even starting to sell prebuilt systems with no RAM at all. Graphics cards have not been spared either: memory chips account for more than 80% of a card build cost, and the RTX 5090 has passed $4,600 on the US market. Intel has signalled that things may not settle before 2028.
The simple takeaway: the device sitting in front of you today is worth more than what you paid for it. Protecting it has become an investment, not a luxury.
What this means for you in practice
A UPS is not just a battery that buys you a few extra minutes. It does three jobs: it prevents the sudden shutdown that corrupts files and sometimes the drive itself, it steadies the unstable voltage coming off the generator, and it absorbs the spike the moment national power comes back. Three points settle the decision before you buy:
- Capacity (VA): Add up the load of your devices and leave a margin of at least a third. A unit running at the edge of its rating heats up and burns through its batteries fast.
- Number of batteries: The runtime you get depends on how many batteries there are and their capacity far more than on the VA figure alone. A unit with four batteries holds out longer than a two-battery unit of the same rating.
- Type: Line Interactive corrects voltage with an AVR regulator and stays roughly within plus or minus 8 to 15%, and it is the practical, more efficient choice for most homes and offices. Online double conversion rebuilds the waveform from scratch and stays within plus or minus 2 to 3% with zero transfer time and near-total isolation from grid disturbances, a difference that matters if your load is sensitive or your power source is genuinely bad.
One point people miss: the runtime a UPS gives you is designed to ride out the switchover or let you shut down safely, not to keep you running for hours. Set your expectations correctly and you will choose correctly, with no regrets.
A pick for every case
If your PC is a workstation, or it runs accounting and design work or a small server, or your voltage swings up and down badly, the cleanest option is an Online double-conversion UPS. This GeTX model, rated 2000VA with six 12V-7A batteries and an LCD screen, isolates your machine from the grid and feeds it a steady waveform instead of passing every fluctuation straight through.
For a gamer or a desktop with a powerful graphics card and two monitors, the load is higher than usual and needs real headroom. The GTXF-3000, rated 3000VA with four 12V 9Ah batteries, gives you the capacity and the longer runtime before shutdown, which makes sense for anyone worried about an open project or a long session.
The practical middle ground for most people: 2000VA with two 12V-12A batteries. Enough capacity for a strong PC with a monitor and a router, higher battery capacity than usual in this class, and still a size a home office can live with.
If your use is ordinary office work, a PC and a monitor and a router with no heavy loads, then 1500VA with two 12V-9A batteries and an LCD screen puts the load and voltage figures right in front of you, and that is useful in itself because you can tell whether you are pushing the unit past its rating.
For light home use or a second PC in the house, 1000VA with two 12V-7A batteries covers the essentials: it stops the sudden shutdown and gives you time to save and close down properly. It is not built for extended runtime, and that is normal.
And if your budget is tight and you want the lowest serious entry point rather than leaving a device with no protection at all, 850VA with a single 12V-9A battery is far better than relying on an ordinary power strip. The rule here: any protection beats zero protection.
A whole category people forget: the cameras and the recorder. Most surveillance systems run on 12V, and if the power goes out you lose the recording at exactly the critical moment. A DC UPS made for cameras, with 12V and 15V outputs, solves that at a fraction of the cost of a big centralised solution.
The same logic applies to your internet: when the power goes, the router dies even if your line is fine. A small 36W Mini UPS with 9V, 12V, 15V PoE and 24V outputs keeps the router and the access point alive, and that is enough to keep your house connected and your cameras uploading.
The bottom line
Iraq power crisis is not a one-season problem, and the global memory crisis, by the companies own forecasts, could stretch on for years. Together they lead to the same conclusion: the cost of going unprotected rises every year. Pick a capacity a third above your load, pay attention to the number of batteries and not the VA figure alone, and count your small devices too, because one unprotected router takes a whole household offline.
And one piece of advice that will still hold months from now: do not buy a UPS after your device dies, buy it while it is still working. At Jowa Souq we deliver to every province in Iraq with cash on delivery, so you can see the unit in your own hands before you pay, and that alone takes away half the worry.
