Residential and commercial UPS User's contribution to load shedding and possible solutions using renewable energy

Abstract

Developing countries are facing electrical energy shortage problems. These nations are adopting load shedding to protect their national grids from instabilities. In this research, load shedding is analyzed where customers opt for the use of uninterrupted power supplies (UPS) and store energy in batteries. It is found that Pakistan has wasted 7117 GWh of energy by charging and discharging the batteries of UPS by 26, 201, 910 residential and commercial customers of the country in 2018. The energy deficit of Pakistan can be reduced from 8.7% to just 1.5% by removing all UPS from the national grid. Several renewable alternatives such as photovoltaic (PV) systems, concentrated solar power plants, pump-hydro on dams, floating PV systems, wind turbines, and PV energy import from the Middle East have been suggested. Analytic hierarchy process is used for the selection of best city and best lake for PV and floating PV system respectively based on multivariable criteria. Pakistan overcame the gap between the electrical load demand and capability in 2019. A reduction of 77% in load shedding in Pakistan resulted in a dipping of load peak of 26 GW in 2018 to 25 GW in 2019. This drop-in load in 2019 is a direct result of the removal of 77% of UPS from the national grid. India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and other developing countries can use this analysis to enhance their power systems.