Battery Powered Home Inverters - Accidents to Discom O & M Workers

C. Satish, Life SM IEEEE. 18 March 2019

I noted over 1 year ago the phenomenon of electrical accidents due to back feed from
battery powered inverters (a kind of UPS). These are used as back up to Discom power in
homes and offices. About 4 months ago I could get a “rough drawing” of one system as
figured it out by someone who inspected one such accident. The figure was not showing a
transfer switch, and type of UPS – offline or online and other essential info for me to
analyse.

Recently I studied the problem and the system. When asked by me, the manufacturers of
two popular brands and some users did not provide technical information like connection or
schematic diagram, user manuals. I asked several power electronics engineers from industry
/ consultants/ teachers. Except from one consultant from within India and one from USA, I
got no usable technical inputs. Then I studied books, articles, standards and used my own
knowledge and figured out the possible reasons and solutions for this type of accidents
which are occurring very often of late. Please see the figure below which I synthesised and
drawn for typical home UPS systems in India which are invariably of offline type.

As I said above, the rough drawing that I got was incorrect / insufficient. It does not show
the two power flow paths in off line home UPS and change-over / transfer switch. In offline
UPS as long as the utility (Discom) supply is there, the battery and inverter are disconnected
from load and load is supplied directly by Discom power. Only when Discom supply fails, the
battery and inverter system is connected to load and the transfer switch breaks back feed of
supply to Discom supply. The transfer switch could also be automatic and solid state. If this
switch is working wrongly, there could be feedback from inverter output to Discom
incoming line into the Discom line even after switching off of Discom supply by the O & M
staff. This is dangerous. The simple test for the absence of back feed is to test if there is no
supply in the pins of the plug top after removing the plug from the incoming Discom supply
socket near the UPS. Incidentally in online UPS, as Discom power is always routed through
an AC/ DC and DC/AC converters to filter and improve power quality. Back feed when
Discom supply fails is not possible in online UPS as power electronic devices like SCRs /
diodes conduct only in one forward direction.

There is only one phase wire coming out of these UPSs which are in the market. The user is
expected to connect it to the line side of the loads to be put on UPS. The existing neutral is
used as the return path. Generally the neutrals of incoming side and output side of UPS are
connected internally inside the UPS by UPS manufacturers.
Continued…
1. The transfer switch must be tested periodically.

2. The line man has not only to switch off the supply from his side but also test the
line is dead and start any maintenance / repair work only if the line is dead

3. The phase and neutral in the incoming supply to the UPS must not be
interchanged.

Apart from the above and for preventing shocks due to insulation failures, proper earthing
of equipment frames and neutral is essential. These are not shown in the figure below. A
typical arrangement suggested is in IEEE Standard 1100. I think there is no Indian standard
for such offline home UPS with all the safety requirements, testing procedure. Please verify.
It is high time a stringent Indian Standard is made and those not conforming to it prevented
from being used and endanger lives. As most practicing engineers, inspectors and workers
are unaware of the above, educating them is also needed.