Technical and Economical Aspects on Integrated PV-UPS Systems

Abstract

This paper shows a technical-economical analysis of a novel Uninterruptible Power Systems (UPS) configuration, in which the backup batteries would be replaced by a photovoltaic (PV) system. Many interesting technical and economical issues concerning the proposed configuration are discussed against the traditional UPS and backup batteries solution. Moreover the technical solutions concerning the proposed integrated system realized using a double conversion UPS are motivated. Finally the operating costs of the proposed integrated PV-UPS system and the classical system with UPS and batteries with different sizes, and as the back-up time varies, are also compared and interesting results have been observed. Of course, the costs estimation for systems including renewables is not easy and cannot be precise, especially on the mid and long term, but still the analysis carried out shows that the proposed system seems to be an economically convenient choice at present in many cases and in the near future almost in all cases.