Effects of Conventional UPS vs Smart Energy Metering Solution on Harmonics and Grid Stability for Low Voltage Consumers in Developing Countries: A Case Study of Pakistan

To deal with frequent power outages in developing countries, people turn to solutions like uninterruptible power supply (UPS), which stores electric energy during normal operating hours and use it to meet energy needs during rolling blackout intervals. Locally produced UPSs of poorer power quality are widely accessible in the marketplaces, and they have a negative impact on power quality. The charging and discharging of the batteries in these UPSs generate significant amount of power losses in weak grid environments. The Smart-UPS is our proposed smart energy metering (SEM) solution for low voltage consumers that is provided by the distribution company. It does not require batteries, therefore there is no power loss or harmonic distortion due to corresponding charging and discharging. Through load flow and harmonic analysis of both traditional UPS and Smart-UPS systems on ETAP, this paper examines their impact on the harmonics and stability of the distribution grid. The simulation results demonstrate that Smart-UPS can assist fixing power quality issues in a developing country like Pakistan by providing cleaner energy than the battery-operated traditional UPSs.