UPS

(Uninterruptable Power Supply)

EEE 1217
Analog Electronics
CSE’20

Nayeema Hasan
Lecturer, Department of EEE,
KUET.
What is UPS?
UPS is an acronym used for Uninterruptible Power Supply and serves as a central element of an
accurately designed power protection system. In simplest form, one can define UPS, as a supply
system that offers uninterrupted power to the ac load by converting dc into ac. Basically, there are
enormous fields that require a continuous source of power without any interruption. Some of these
fields are:
• Medical care systems,
• Safety monitoring systems
• IT and networking fields,
• Data centers,
• AMT units.

As loss of power supply in the functioning of these systems may lead to severe consequences such as
removal of important data.

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Block Diagram of UPS:

Figure 01: Block Diagram of a Typical UPS System

• Its major components include a rectifier, inverter, battery bank, filter circuit, and critical
load. Either a single-phase or a three-phase input signal is provided as input to the
rectifier.
• In normal operating conditions, the current is drawn from the ac mains while in case of
power outage backup source provides current. Here battery is used as the backup source
to deliver power to the load in case of power failure.
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Types of UPS:
• There are basically three types of UPS:

a) On-line UPS

b) Off-line UPS

c) Line-interactive UPS

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On-line UPS/ Double-conversion UPS:
• On-line UPS abbreviated as OUPS is a type of UPS that uses a combination of rectifier and
inverter circuits in order to provide continuous power to the load from the supply source
without any interruption. From continuous power here we mean that power is supplied to the
load in case of availability from the source and power outage as well with zero transfer time.
• On-line UPS is sometimes also known as double-conversion system. The reason for calling it
so because, within an online UPS system, power conversion occurs twice as the circuit includes
a rectifier and an inverter.
• Transfer time is defined as the time duration which the UPS circuit takes to switch path from
supply mains to the battery backup in order to provide power to the load. On-line UPS offers
zero transfer time as its static switch is present in normally on-state.

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Block Diagram of On-line UPS:

Figure 02: Block Diagram of a Typical On-line UPS System

• It is clearly shown that power to the critical load can be provided in three ways. These are as follows:
First, directly from ac mains to the critical load (including rectifier, inverter circuit, and primary static
switch).Second, from battery backup to critical load (including inverter circuit only).Last, from ac
mains to critical load (without including rectifier and inverter circuit) via following the path (i.e.,
bypass) through the secondary static switch. 6
Working Principle of On-line UPS:
• Condition I: When supply mains is on : The supply will provide a single-phase or three-phase ac
signal as input to the rectifier circuit. The rectifier circuit will change the applied ac input into a dc
signal. The dc output of the rectifier is simultaneously fed to the inverter as well as the battery in order
to charge the latter. Thus, the rectifier here acts as a charger as well as a rectification unit thus is of high
rating. The dc signal fed to the inverter will convert the dc signal into ac. This ac signal is provided to
the normally on-static switch through which the ac power is delivered to the load. Hence, in this mode
of operation, power to the critical load is supplied along with simultaneous charging of the battery.

• Condition II: When supply mains is off: In the absence of an ac input signal, the rectifier will be in a
temporarily disconnected state, in such a condition, the stored power within the battery is provided to
the inverter. And from this point, the inverter starts operating like the previously discussed condition
i.e., taking the dc input and converting it into ac output and providing it to the load via normally on
static switch. However, the supply from the battery backup must not add any delay or interruption to the
operation. The battery backup is utilized either till the time of restoration of the ac supply or until the
battery power gets drained off, whichever condition occurs first. As inverter has to supply constant
power to the load in both the above-discussed cases hence must be properly and carefully designed.
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Working Principle of On-line UPS:

• Condition III: When UPS fails: When the inverter circuit breaks out or fails then it will not allow
the load to draw the current from supply input. But still, for proper operation, the supply input must
be delivered to the critical load. So, in this situation, through a bypass route, the load draws power
from the source. Basically, when the inverter circuit fails then the secondary static switch comes to
on-state from normally-off state. And through this, the ac signal will reach the load with zero phase
discontinuity in merely one-fourth of the complete cycle time period. The moment the secondary
static switch gets turned on, an alarm intimates the attendant reading the failure of the UPS system
thus can be diagnosed and corrected.

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Off-line UPS:
• Off-line UPS, sometimes called standby UPS is equipment that offers uninterruptible power
supply immediately to the connected device through the battery when detects electric supply
failure within the circuit.
• Basically, in offline UPS, ac power to the load is directly supplied from an ac source without
inverter or rectifier circuitry, meanwhile charging the battery in normal condition.
• However, in case of a power outage, the inverter is used to supply ac power to the load
through the battery which acts as a backup.
• An offline ups does not offer zero transfer time as the transfer time of such devices varies
between 3 to 8 milliseconds. However, the popularly known value is 5 milliseconds. Due to
this reason, these are used with small or non-critical loads that may handle this small amount
of disruption.

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Block Diagram of Off-line UPS (AC mains ON):

Figure 03: Block Diagram of a Typical Off-line UPS System (main AC supply is ON)

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Working Principle of Off-line UPS (Mode I):
• An off-line UPS operates differently from that of on-line UPS and this difference in operation is
generated mainly due to the circuit arrangement. The complete circuit operation takes place in two
modes. Let us now discuss each mode of operation separately.
• Mode I: When ac mains is on:
• When the ac supply provided to the circuit is active then the load drives the current from the mains. The
ac signal first passes through the surge suppressor and then through the filter in order to reach the load.
The surge suppressor here is used to protect the load (electrical and electronic equipment) from voltage
spikes (known as transients) of the applied ac signal. Thus, is present right within the line that connects
the supply to the load. The output of the surge suppressor is given to the filter circuit that only passes
the desired frequency component through it and blocks the unwanted. The filtered ac signal is then
provided to the load via a normally on static switch present between the filter and the load.
• However, at the same time, the ac input signal from the supply mains is fed to the rectifier circuit which
converts the applied ac signal into rectified dc output. Here the rectifier acts as a battery charger because
the dc output of the rectifier is used to charge the battery. Thus, charging of the battery and driving
the load occurs simultaneously by the applied ac signal. This happens till the time the supply
mains is present.
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Block Diagram of Off-line UPS (AC mains OFF):

Figure 04: Block Diagram of a Typical Off-line UPS System (main AC supply is OFF)

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Working Principle of Off-line UPS (Mode II):
• Mode II: When ac mains is off:

During the ongoing process of driving the load and battery charging if a power failure occurs then the
normally on static switch between the load and the filter will immediately gets turned off. Once it gets
off, the inverter comes into action. Now, the inverter which was off previously, will take the dc signal
from the battery backup and convert it into ac signal. By the time, the static switch that was previously
off will now gets on and passes the ac output of the inverter towards the load. Thus, even after supply
failure, the load will get the power to continue the operation.

It is to be noted here that around 5 milliseconds of time is required for switching of the static switch in
case of off-line ups which was zero for on-line ups.

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Line-Interactive UPS:
AVR
Single or
(Automatic
Three-phase
Voltage
AC input
Regulator)

Figure 05: Block Diagram of a Typical line-interactive UPS System

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Thank you All!

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