COPS (Critical Operational Power Supply)

An uninterrupted power supply or an UPS is an electrical apparatus that provides emergency

power to a load when the input power source or mains power fails. The on-battery run-time of
most uninterruptible power sources is relatively short (only a few minutes) but sufficient to start
a standby power source or properly shut down the protected equipment. It is a type of continual
power system. A UPS is typically used to protect hardware such as computers, data
centers, telecommunication equipment or other electrical equipment where an unexpected power
disruption could cause injuries, fatalities, serious business disruption or data loss.

AAI, that is Airports and air traffic control needs totally reliable power and for this purpose
critical operational power supply is used.

COPS known as critically operational power supply is a unit that is responsible for supplying
power to the entire Airport Authority of India, AAI. All the machinery, from transformers to
SMR fetch their power from the working of COPS. There are two kinds of UPS – online UPS
and offline UPS.

COPS uses online UPS in its working.

Online UPS-

Online UPS take the incoming AC mains supply and convert it to DC which feeds the battery
and the load via the inverter. If the main supply fails, then the batteries feed the load via the
inverter with no interruption to the output supply at all. An online system, by nature of the dual
conversion design, ensures a far higher degree of isolation of the load from the irregularities on
the main supply. In general, plug and play online systems are more expensive than similar offline
solutions because the inverter has to be rated for continuous operation.
Offline UPS-

Offline UPS are the simplest and least expensive. When mains is present, it is routed straight
through the UPS bypassing the inverter to the output. A degree of filtering is providing ensuring
limited protection against spikes and other irregularities. The batteries are charged the whole
time, but only in the event of a power failure will the load be fed by the inverter. The switching
from mains to inverter supply (generally referred to as Transfer Time) usually takes a few
milliseconds. However, a modern computer’s or office system’s internal power supply has
sufficient power stored within it to survive this brief interruption of power – ensuring
uninterrupted operation of the load equipment.

In COPS, in the UPS, double conversion takes place, that is AC to DC to AC conversion. There
are 5 modules in an UPS of 30KVa each resulting in total of 150KVa. The main supply is fed
with AC which further goes to the rectifier which converts the AC to DC. The output of the
rectifier goes to the inverter which again does DC to AC conversion. The output is connected to
the main supply by a By Pass. The inverter giving the output is connected to the rectifier and a
battery.

In the ACC building, there are 12 UPS divided in 2 sources. The sources are source A and source
B having 6 UPS each. The 6 UPS are of 150KVa each and so resulting in 900KVa in total.

The UPS are connected in parallel for redundancy, as if one goes down another comes in place.
UPS works online and offline. When online, UPS requires an online address and when offline, it
requires a machine address.

The signal flow takes place as the raw supply is fed to the input panel and then to the UPS where
the phase sequence correction is done. From the UPS the power goes to the output panel and then
to the isolation transformer where dedicated earthing is done (Dedicated earthing is a term used
for earthing done for the electronic equipments having high value) The power then flows to the
junction box and then to the critical panel and finally to the distribution box from where it is
distributed to the equipments.
The UPS is connected to two battery banks each containing 38 batteries. Each battery bank (BB)
has a battery sensor (BS). The battery sensor senses the temperature, voltage, current and
resistance of a battery. This goes to the BMS which is the Battery Monitoring System. The
battery monitoring system is connected to the RDU. The RDU is the residual data unit which
fetches the data and finally presents it onto the monitor.