LAUSR

Abstract For the past many years Pakistan is facing electricity shortfall. The gap between demand and supply of electricity is as much as 6000 MW during the peak summer months. This has resulted into scheduled power cuts that range between 6–12 h in a day. To reduce the effect of these power cuts or load shedding, consumers have installed alternate energy sources such as Fossil Fuel Generators and Uninterpretable Power Supply Systems (UPSs). While Fossil Fuel Generators use energy sources such as oil and natural gas, the UPSs are charged from the electricity grid that is already under stress. Some sources estimate the UPSs penetration to as much as 40% in Pakistan. With this penetration rate the UPSs are a solution for individual consumers but it exacerbates the problem at the National scale. Moreover, the low quality of UPSs further strains the electricity system. In this paper presents a study to investigate the effects of UPSs in Pakistan's electricity system. By carrying out measurements of sample UPSs we estimated the amount of electricity the UPSs consume in Pakistan's electricity market. Our results show that depending on the number of power cut hours, the UPSs consume between 2%–7% of electricity at any given time. We further provide ways and measures to reduce the UPS charging load on the overall electricity system.