High-Reliability Long-Backup-time Super UPS with
Multiple Energy Sources
Haijin Li, Wenping Zhang, Dehong Xu
Power Electronics Research Institute, Zhejiang University
Zheda Road 38, Hangzhou, China
Email: xdh@cee.zju.edu.cn
Abstract—The power rating of Uninterrupted Power Supply
(UPS) has been increasing continuously. In the near future it
will increase to MW and dozens of MW. Reliability and
environmental friendliness are critical issues for this
application. Aiming at the requirements of ultra-high power
UPS, this paper proposes a concept of Super UPS using
multiple energy sources (Grid, Gas Turbine (GT), Fuel Cell
(FC), Li-ion Battery (LB) and Photovoltaic (PV)) to boost the
reliability of system and improve environmental friendliness.
Firstly, four typical structures for Super UPS are analyzed and
the best choice of structure for ultra-high power high
reliability application is given. Then, operation modes of
proposed structure for Super UPS are introduced. Finally,
results of reliability computation verified that the reliability of
Super UPS is much higher than traditional UPS.
I. INTRODUCTION
UPS has been widely used in Internet Data Center (IDC),
telecommunication, hospital, financial services, industries
etc. Continuous and high quality power is required to
guarantee the operation in critical situation even during
disasters and aftermath. The power rating of UPS has been
increasing continuously. In the near future it will increase to
MW, dozens of MW. Besides there is a need to further
increase the reliability, availability and friendliness to
environment to such a large UPS. Therefore UPS
architecture is needed to evolve to satisfy these requirements.
Traditionally, it is common practice to use Lead-acid
batteries for short duration backup and diesel generators for
long backup time. It not only causes higher maintenance cost
due to short expectancy of the batteries and diesel generators,
but also causes possible pollution to environment. An
approach to effectively enhance reliability of UPS is to
increase diversity of power sources. By introducing multiple
sources to UPS, it is possible to boost the reliability of next
generation of UPS. In addition, we can increase the
greenness by integrating clean energy resource to the UPS.
Renewable energy has been integrated into UPS by
predecessors [1-22]. According to the location of renewable
energy integration, the structure of UPS integrated renewable
energy can be classified as AC integration and DC
integration [1]. In [1], the renewable energy is introduced to
UPS through load side AC bus. Renewable energy can be
also integrated in grid side AC bus [2]. In [3-6] renewable
978-1-4799-0336-8/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE
sources is introduced to UPS through DC bus. The advantage
of DC bus integration of renewable energy is that there is no
requirement of frequency and phase synchronization.
According to the purpose of UPS integrated renewable
energy, the structure can be classified as long backup time,
low cost and environment friendliness. In [3, 11, 21, 22],
Fuel Cell stack is introduced to the UPS to achieve long
backup time. In [4-6, 12-16], PV or WT are integrated in
UPS to achieve low cost and environment friendliness. Since
WT and PV are intermittence power source such Fuel Cell,
Gas turbine or storage component such as Li-ion battery may
be required to sustain a continuous high quality power to
load.
The purpose of UPS integrated with renewable energy by
predecessors is rarely improving reliability. But for ultra-
high power and critical application, reliability is much more
important than low costs and long backup time especially
during disasters and aftermath. The failure of UPS may
cause huge losses. Because of the energy crisis and
environmental degradation, environmental friendliness is
another critical issue for this application.
Aiming at the reliable and environmental friendly
requirements of ultra-high power UPS, this paper proposes a
concept of Super UPS using multiple energy sources (Grid,
GT, FC, LB and PV) to boost the reliability of system. And
all sources added into system are environmental friendly
Firstly, four typical structures for Super UPS are analyzed
and the best choice of structure for ultra-high power high
reliability application is given. Then, operation modes of
proposed structure for Super UPS are introduced. Finally,
results of reliability computation verify that the reliability of
Super UPS is much higher than traditional UPS.
II. CONCEPT AND CONFIGURATION OF SUPER UPS
Super UPS shown in Figure 1 is designed for ultra-high
reliability and environmental friendliness. It consists of
multiple energy resources to guarantee the reliability and
availability of continuous power to the critical load. All
sources added into UPS are environmental friendly. Besides,
PV is added in system for environmental friendliness and
economics. The extra energy of PV can be fed to grid.
However, PV is an intermittence power source. Fuel Cell,
Gas turbine and storage component Li-ion battery are added
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to sustain a continuous high quality power to load. Besides, Structure (II) shown in Figure 3(a) is another AC
FC and GT can achieve long backup time. Specifications integration. When grid is normal, grid powers the load, and
such as reliability, availability and environmental PV operates in MPPT mode. When grid fails, battery starts
friendliness are critical issues of Super UPS. to power the load. PV system detects islanding and be
protected. The grid’s switch opens, GT and FC cold start.
PV restarts to power the load. Back-to-back converter for
GT is optional. And output power quality will not be
affected. If PV and FC output voltage is enough high, the
converter can be single stage.
Renewable sources can be fed extra power to grid. It is
also be realized by adding extra AC sources to the original
UPS. Compared to Structure (I), the integration location of
AC sources is different. The advantage of this structure is
that the extra energy can be fed to grid, but due to multiple
stages converter, the overall efficiency is lower, and lower
efficiency means larger capacity of sources. Larger capacity
Figure 1. Proposed architecture of Super UPS. of sources will bring much more costs, especially for FC
A. The Structure of Super UPS and PV. Moreover, more stages mean low reliability.
Structure (II) is less reliable than Structure (I) in grid failure
Four typical structures for Super UPS are shown in mode. Besides, another disadvantage of this structure is that
Figure 2- Figure 4. Structure (I) is AC integration structure. an extra switch is needed to isolate grid when grid fails. If
For this structure, in grid normal mode, grid provides energy
there is no switch, when grid fails, other sources cannot
for load, and load inverter regulates the load AC Bus. PV
operates as a current source. When load power is less than provide energy for load.
PV power, PV operate in current-limit mode. If load power
is more than PV power, PV operates in MPPT mode. GT and
FC operate in cold backup mode. When grid fails, LB
provides load power for uninterruptable power. GT and FC
cold start depend on load power and grid failure time. In grid
failure mode, load inverter continues to regulate AC bus for
uninterruptable power supply. For this structure, the back-to-
back converter of GT can be removed but the power quality
will be worse. If the output voltage of PV is enough high,
DC/DC converter of PV is optional.
The advantage of this structure is that it is realized by
adding extra AC sources to the original UPS. The
disadvantage of this architecture is that surplus renewable (a) Structure (II) for Super UPS.
power cannot be fed to the grid. In addition, we should take
phase and frequency synchronization for all extra sources
into consideration.

(b) The Derivation of Structure (II) for Super UPS.

Figure 3. Structure (II) Super UPS and its derivation.

In order to overcome the disadvantage of low efficiency

Figure 2. Structure (I) for Super UPS. of Structure (II), Figure 3 (b) shows a derivation of structure
(II). Renewable sources provide power for load through

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DC/DC converter. Power path for each source only have Grid Load

two stages. But Structure II has four stages. So the

derivation of structure II has higher efficiency. GT
LB
Structure (III) combines the merits of Structure (I) and
Structure (II). It is shown in Figure 4 (a). It can be regarded FC
as the parallel of UPS. The surplus renewable power can be H2
O2 SC
fed to grid. Every source has two converters. One is used to PV
provide energy, and another is used to feed power to grid. If
one source need not feed power to grid, grid side converter
can be eliminated. This structure has higher efficiency than
Figure 5. Structure (IV) for Super UPS.
structure II. When grid rectifier fails, other sources grid side
converter can be used as grid rectifier. So it has higher Because power of all sources will flow to load through
reliability than Structure (I) and (II). But every source needs inverter, inverter will affect the whole system reliability.
a grid side inverter. If number of integrated sources Inverter must have high reliability. Modular inverter or fault
increases, the cost is much higher than structures above. tolerant inverter can be used in this application to improve
Another disadvantage of the structure is that the reliability.
synchronization in both grid side and load side should be
taken into consideration.

(a)Super UPS with modular inverter.

Figure 4. Structure (III) for Super UPS.

Structure (IV) is a DC integration. Extra renewable

power can be fed to grid through bidirectional rectifier.
When grid is normal, Grid and PV provide load power. If
PV power is more than load power, extra power is fed to
grid though PV grid side inverter. FC and GT does not
operate, so the grid side rectifier of FC and GT can be (b)Super UPS with fault tolerant inverter.
removed. When grid fails, battery starts to power the load, Figure 6. Derivation of structure IV for Super UPS.
and FC and GT cold start.
Then the comparison of reliability for different structure
And this structure is preferred for Super UPS, because is analyzed. Ignoring the reliability of source, only the
it has higher efficiency than Structure (II) and lower cost reliability of converters is compared. The comparison based
than Structure (III). DC parallel is easier to be realized than on same capacity of converters for each structure. So the
AC parallel. Phase and frequency synchronization needn’t inverter number of structure IV consists of N modular
be taken into consideration, so DC parallel is more reliable inverters, N equal to number of sources. R is the reliability
than AC parallel. This structure is the best choice for high of each converter. The result is shown in TABLE I.
power, high reliability and green Super UPS system.
TABLE I. COMPARISION OF STRUCTURE RELIABILITY
Because the load of UPS is AC load. The disadvantage Index Reliability
of this structure is that AC sources must power the load Structure I [1-(1-R2)N]
through two stage converters. It may have low efficiency for Structure II [1-(1-R2)N]R2
AC source. Structure III [1-(1-R2)N]
Structure IV [1-(1-R)N]2

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 Structure IV has the highest reliability, and Structure II In State C, When PPV<Pload, grid and PV provide power
has the lowest reliability. If reliability of each converter is to load together. In this state, PV works in MPPT mode,
0.8, the reliability of each structure with different number of grid rectifier maintain the DC bus voltage.
sources is shown below:

Figure 10. State C of operation modes.

When it is in grid failure mode, in State D if

Figure 7. Converter reliability of four structures.
B. The operation modes of Super UPS
The Super UPS can be operated in the grid normal mode
or grid failure mode.
In the grid normal mode, PV is always operated at the
Maximum Power Point (MPP) and grid power can flow in
two directions. The operation mode under grid normal is
shown in Figure 8 to Figure 10.
Pload>PPV+PLB+PGT, PV, LB, GT operate at maximum
power, FC provides extra power. If the load decreases,
PPV+PLB<Pload<PPV+PLB+PGT, FC stops to provide power
and operate in cold backup mode. Similarly, if the load
continues to decrease, PPV <Pload<PPV+PLB, GT stops to
provide power. When Pload<PPV, and Battery is not fully
charged, PV provides power to battery and load, if Battery
is fully charged, PV only provides power to the load. The
State D-H are shown in Figure 11.

In this State A, PPV>Pload, and Battery is charging. In

this mode PV works in MPPT mode, and PV provide power
to both load and battery.

(a) State D.

Figure 8. State A of operation modes.

In State B, PPV>Pload, and Battery is fully charged. In this

state, bi-directional rectifier in grid side operates in inverter
mode. The extra energy is fed back to grid. This state is
different from traditional UPS. It can feed back power to
grid, while traditional UPS is only a load of grid. (b) State E.

(c) State F.
Figure 9. State B of operation modes.

4929
 1 − λ1 − λ3 1 − μ1 − λ2

λ1
μ1

λ3 λ2

λ1
(d) State G.

1 − λ1 1

(b) States transition diagram.

Figure 12. Reliability and status transition diagrams of traditional
UPS system.

The Mean Time between Failures (MTBF) can be

calculated by Markov Process.

(e) State H. λ1 ( μ1 + λ1 + λ2 ) + λ3 ( μ1 + λ2 )
MTBFUPS _ trad . = (3)
Figure 11. Operating modes under grid failure mode. λ12 λ2 + λ1λ3 ( μ1 + λ2 )
III. EVALUATION OF SYSTEM RELIABILITY Where λ1, λ2 and λ3 are the failure rates of the grid, the
MTBF is defined as mean time between failure, and battery in discharging mode and the battery in float charging
MTTR is defined as mean time to repair. The Reliability R
mode, respectively, µ1 is the repair rate of the grid.
can be calculated as
t
− TABLE II. RELIABILITY PARAMETERS OF TRADITIONAL UPS
R=e MTBF
(1) Failure Repair
Items MTBF(h)
The Availability A can be calculated as: Rate(h-1) Rate(h-1)
Grid 0.005* 0.16* 200*
MTBF
A= ⋅100% (2) Battery (Discharge
MTBF + MTTR mode)
5.5×10-4 - 1800

A. Reliability of traditional UPS system Battery (Float

3.8×10-5 - 26280
Charging mode)
The traditional UPS has two energy sources, grid and * Chinese Standard: General requirements of power supply system for
lead-acid battery. Assuming that the reliability of converters telecommunication stations (YD/T 1051 -2010)
is sufficiently high, the reliability model of traditional UPS
can be simplified and it is shown in Figure 12 (a). Given the data from TABLE II, MTBF of the traditional
UPS can be obtained.
There are four states for traditional UPS and the states MTBF = 2.16 × 10 4 h=2.45 years (4)
transition diagram is shown in Figure 12(b). For each state,
The MTTR of grid is
the first letter and the second letter represent the status of
the grid and the battery, respectively. For each letter, 0, 1 1
MTTRgrid = = 6h (5)
and 2 mean failure, operating and floating, respectively. The μ grid
grid is considered as a repairable component while battery is The MTTR of battery is much larger than grid, so
a non-repairable component. the MTTR of the system is
MTTRbattery ⋅ MTTRgrid
MTTR = ≈ 6h (6)
MTTRbattery + MTTRgrid
Availability is shown below,
A = 99.99972% (7)

(a) Reliability mode.

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B. Reliability of Fuel Cell UPS System Where λ1 and m are the failure rates of grid and PV,
respectively, µ1 and n are the repair rate of grid and PV,
respectively.
If the priority of power sources is LB>GT>FC, the state
diagram of this strategy is shown in Figure 15. The first
letter represents the status of the grid and PV parallel
module. The second letter represents the status of LB. The
third letter represents the status of GT, and the last letter
Figure 13. Reliability model of FC UPS.
represents the status of FC. For each letter, 0, 1 and 2 mean
failure, operating and standby, respectively. And λ21, λ22 is
TABLE III. FAILURE RATE, MTBF AND REPAIR RATE OF FC UPS. the failure rate of LB in standby mode and operating mode.
Failure Repair MTBF(h) λ31, λ32 is the failure rate of GT in standby mode and
Items
Rate(h-1) Rate(h-1) operating mode. λ41, λ42 is the failure rate of FC in standby
Grid 0.005* 0.16* 200 mode and operating mode.
FC Operation 1×10 -3
- 1000 λ1
-6
FC Standby 5.7×10 - 175200 μ1 λ22 λ 42
λ21 λ31 λ 41 λ32
* Chinese Standard: General requirements of power supply system for
telecommunication stations (YD/T 1051 -2010)

MTBF of FC UPS is λ31 λ32

λ21 λ 41 λ21 λ31 λ 42 λ22 λ32
4 λ 41 λ22 λ 42
MTBF = 2.9 × 10 h = 3.3years (8)

Availability is shown below, λ31 λ32

λ 41 λ21 λ 42 λ22
MTBF
A= = 99.999966% (9)
MTBF + MTTR Figure 15. Status transition diagrams of super UPS system.
C. Reliability of Super UPS with multiple energy sources TABLE IV. RELIABILITY PARAMETERS OF SUPER UPS
The reliability model of super UPS system is shown in Failure Rate(Operate) Failure Rate Repair Rate
Figure 14. Item
(h-1) (Standby) (h-1) (h-1)
Grid 0.005 - 0.167
-4 -5
LB 2.5×10 1.1×10 -
-3 -6
FC 1×10 5.7×10 -
-4 -6
GT 3.3×10 3.8×10 -
PV 0.16 - 0.057

MTBF can also be calculated by Markov Process.

MTBF = 1.4 × 105 h = 20.2years (11)
Availability is calculated as:
A = 99.9999943% (12)
Figure 14. Reliability model of super UPS system. It can be seen from Figure 19, the reliability is greatly
enhanced compared to the traditional UPS.
In this model, PV and Grid are regarded as repairable
components. The failure rate and repair rate of parallel
module of PV and grid are

⎧ λ1m(λ1 + m + μ1 + n)
⎪λ p = (λ + n)(m + μ ) + m(m + μ ) + λ (λ + n)
⎪ 1 1 1 1 1
⎨ (10)
⎪μ = 1
⎪⎩ p n + μ1
Figure 19. MTBF of super UPS with different priorities.

4931
 Besides, the different priorities of energy sources lead to
different reliability. Following the approach above, the
MTBFs with different priorities are shown below. It has
lowest reliability when LB, FC and GT operate together to
provide load power. And it has highest reliability with the
priority: LB>FC>GT. It can be seen in Figure 16.
Figure 16. Reliability of Super UPS with different priority.
The comparison of Super UPS and different UPS with
one source is shown in Figure 16. The reliability of Super
UPS is much higher than FC UPS and GT UPS, Battery
UPS have the lowest reliability. It is shown in Figure 17.
Figure17. Reliability of Super UPS and UPS with single source.
The comparison of Super UPS and different UPS with
two sources is shown in Figure 15.The reliability of Super
UPS is higher than UPS with FC and GT, UPS with FC and
LB, and UPS with LB and GT, UPS with LB and FC have
the lowest reliability. It can be seen in Figure 18.
Figure 18. Reliability of Super UPS and UPS with two sources.
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IV. CONCLUSION
Aiming at the reliable and environmental friendly
requirements of ultra-high power UPS, this paper proposes a
concept of Super UPS using multiple energy sources to
boost the reliability of system and improve environmental
friendliness. Firstly, four typical structures for Super UPS
are analyzed and DC integration structure for ultra-high
power high reliability application is given. Then, operation
modes of proposed structure for Super UPS are introduced.
In grid normal mode, PV always operates at the MPP. The
extra PV power can be injected to the grid or charge the
Battery. In grid-failure mode, four energy sources with
different priorities are combined to enhance the system
reliability. Finally, results of reliability computation verify
that the reliability of Super UPS is much higher than
traditional UPS. The MTBF of super UPS is 20.2 years
which is greatly improved compared to 2.45 years in the
traditional UPS.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported in part by the National High
Technology Research and Development Program of China
863 Program (2012AA053602, 2012AA053603), by the
National Natural Science Foundation of China (51277163),
by the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program
of Higher Education of China (20120101130010).
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