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WHITE PAPER
Evaluation of transformer-free UPS design vs transformer-based

by Carlo Kufahl, Product Manager, 3-phase UPS

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Evaluation of transformer-free UPS design vs
transformer-based

The real function of the transformer in a UPS

The first double-conversion UPS where born in the 1970s and at that time the semiconductors available,
on top of being bigger and less performing; they were not compatible with the voltage levels as today.
Consequently, the UPS system at that time needed a transformer to step-up the voltage of the UPS
output in order to provide to the critical load the same voltage rating of the input (mains). This is the
original and only reason why there was the need of having a transformer integrated in the UPS.

Evolution of double-conversion UPS

UPS are subject to technology evolution on a 3-5 year rate, which is the same rate for the electronics and
power-electronics evolution. Among many others, there has been one very important step of technology,
which is worth explaining in this context because 1) its customer benefits are significant as we will cover
in a moment and 2) it permitted to change from transformer-based design into transformer-free. It is the
topology change of the power converters (rectifier and inverter), which started to happen at the very
beginning of this century, from thyristor-based design first 6-pluse and later 12-pulse thyristor bridges into
the today topology based on IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor). Today virtually all double-
conversion UPS have the power converters based on IGBT and are transformer-free.

Differences between transformer-free and transformer-based design and its effect on the
customer benefits
Before we look into the design differences and its consequences/impact, let us briefly explain how the two
topologies work, by means of single line diagrams (Figure 1 and Figure 2).

Transformer-based UPS
The UPS has two AC inputs, the rectifier and bypass inputs, one AC output and a DC connection for the
battery. The rectifier and bypass inputs can be connected together (inside the UPS) in order to have one
common input. During the normal working conditions, when mains is available, the normal power flow
goes through the rectifier, inverter and transformer to the output and supplies the critical load. This
working-mode is called double-conversion mode. In double-conversion mode, the battery is constantly
kept at full charge (floating). During long or short power outages (mains at input side is not available) the
battery feeds the inverter which, supplies power the critical load trough the transformer with no
interruption.

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The static bypass path acts as emergency path, coming in the game when there is a problem on the
double-conversion path such as overload, over temperature or short circuit at the output side of the UPS.

In some cases, the static bypass path becomes the primary power path. This working mode is commonly
known as eco-mode; despite the fact that each UPS manufacturer is implementing small differences and
is calling it differently, it is practically identical for all: the load is still protected in case of power outages
but there is an interruption of typically 5-8ms during which the UPS has to transfer from static bypass to
inverter.

Finally, there is a maintenance bypass switch, can be UPS integrated or external when having a parallel
UPS system. Its function is to bypass the unit connecting input to output directly and thanks to the other
switches the unit can be isolated and serviced.

Figure 1: single line diagram of a transformer-based UPS

Transformer-free UPS
The working principle of transformer-free UPS is the same as for the transformer-based, with the main
difference that there is no transformer integrated; the newer IGBT technology allows working with higher
voltages, hence there is no need of stepping up the voltage after the inverter. This has enormous effect
on the energy efficiency improving it from 90% to 96%, which is industry-standard today. Furthermore, as
it is easy to imagine transformer-free UPS are much lighter and occupy less footprint; less space means
less investment cost and less weight means easier handling, which also ends up with a cost difference for
the installation work.

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 Figure 2: single line diagram of a transformer-free UPS

Also, because of working with higher voltage, an additional converter between the DC bus and the battery
was introduced. It allows to keeping precise control over the batteries constantly and providing clean DC
voltage, with no ripple, which maximizes the battery lifetime.
But the advantages do not stop here.
The total harmonic distortion gets dramatically low and the input power factor is resistive thanks to the
active control of the input currents. This means that the devices which are upstream the of the UPS (e.g.
generators) must not be oversized by a factor 1.5 or even more as it usually is/was with transformer-
based UPS.
Finally, some other differences can be identified at the output stage: the output impedance and the
dynamic response in case of unbalanced load are better on the transformer-free UPS thanks to the direct
control of the output sinus and the fact that each phase is controlled independently. On the contrary, the
output short circuit capability on inverter results to be stronger on the transformer-based UPS. The same
cannot be confirmed for the short circuit capability on bypass: the two designs achieve the same levels
having similar if not equal circuitry for the bypass. Bear in mind that the fact that designers take into
account also the short circuit of the inverter is because of power-supply design rules. In reality, it is more
likely that a short circuit happens when mains is available which means that the short circuit gets cleared
by the bypass hence the capability on the bypass is what counts.

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Major technical specifications differences (typical)
Let us summarize the major technical differences between the two topologies.
Table 1: summary of the major technical differences between the two topologies.

# transformer-based transformer-free
Efficiency on double
1 90-92% 95-96%
conversion mode
2 Efficiency on eco-mode 99% 99%
30% (6-pluse thyristor-based rectifier)
Current Total Harmonic
3 12% (12-pluse thyristor-based rectifier) 3-4%
Distortion (THDi)
3-4% (IGBT rectifier)
4 Input Power Factor low on partial load 0.99 – 0.97 at full and partial load
without battery charger more than 5%
5 AC ripple on Battery 0.2%
with battery charger 0.2%
Allowed number of battery
6 fix (typically 40) variable from 30 to 50
blocks in series (12V)
7 Output impedance high (worse) low (better)
Output fault clearing
8 up to 5 x In (better) up to 3 x In (worse)
capability on inverter
Output fault clearing
9 up to 10 x In up to 10 x In
capability on bypass
ideal, direct control of the output
sinus, each phase is controlled
poor, unbalanced loads affect output
10 Dynamic response independently, thus unbalanced
voltages
loads are not affecting the output
voltages
11 Weight (one 500kVA unit) 2.2 – 2.6 tons 1 ton
12 Footprint (one 500kVA unit) 1.8 – 2.0 sqm 1.5 – 1.6 sqm

Major differences for the customers (effect on the customer benefits)

Table 2: summary of the major differences between the two topologies for the customers.

# transformer-based
1 Investment cost
2 Operational cost
Environmental impact for
3 producing the product and
transport to final location
Environmental impact for
4 losses and more energy needed for
operating the product
transformer-free
$$$ due to higher UPS cost, higher
installation cost (oversize of system $$
upstream the UPS) and larger footprint.
$ Higher efficiency  reduced
$$$ due to lower efficiency means
power losses and less cooling.
higher energy costs for both UPS and
During many years, the saving is
cooling.
significant.
Higher than transformer-free due to
Lower than transformer-based
more components (transformer) and
thanks to the same arguments
bigger mechanical size for the unit
Lower efficiency means higher power Higher efficiency means less
power losses and less energy
cooling. needed for cooling

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 may be dramatically reduced due to AC
5 Battery life (Lead-Acid) up to 12 years
ripple

From the above comparisons, it clearly results that the transformer-free UPS design has more
advantages on his part and those that count today. This is somewhat obvious, otherwise we would not
see that the IGBT based and transformer-free UPS design market has replaced the old designs.
However, it is correct to reminding that both designs provide the fundamental functionalities of a double-
conversion UPS and both designs maintain the key characteristics such as availability, reliability and the
expected life-time of the UPS is equal for the two.

The non-topics for having a transformer-based UPS

In addition to what was just explained, some people in the industry are still convinced that a transformer
in a UPS has other functions.

• Isolate input from output

Sometimes it is required that the UPS input and/or output are completely isolated from the rest of
the electrical installation. At first, a transformer-based UPS seems to be ideal solution for that,
having the isolation transformer inbuilt at the output of the rectifier and before the output
terminals. Is this really so? In reality the isolation isn’t there, looking back at Figure 1, we
immediately see that when the UPS is in static-bypass mode or maintenance bypass mode the
isolation between input and output is not there. Moreover, the Neutral-line is always not isolated,
also in double-conversion mode. As the figure 3 shows, Neutral-line goes through from input to
output without isolation. This is valid for virtually all UPS systems.

Figure 3: 4-wire diagram of a transformer-based UPS.

In order to have a complete and true isolation from the input of the UPS to the output, the best
way would be to add external isolation transformers as showed in the example in Figure 4. It
becomes clear that when there is the need of isolate input from output, the best choice results to

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 be a transformer-less UPS (higher efficiency, smaller footprint and lower weight) plus external
isolation transformers.

Figure 4: 4-wire diagram of a transformer-based UPS.

• Better filtering
As the UPS itself is a device which works with switching frequency and PWM (rectification and
creation of the output sinus by means of switching ON and OFF semiconductors), there are
unwelcome phenomena, like harmonic distortion, which need to be filtered out and the input
Power Factor. The main indicators of the quality of the power are:
1. Total Harmonic Distortion of the input current (THDi)
2. Total Harmonic Distortion of the output voltage (THDU)
3. Input Power Factor (input PF)
Now, the full explanation and theory related to these three UPS characteristics could be topic for
a separate paper. Regarding our topic of transformer-based vs transformer-less UPS design it is
important to understand whether there are significant differences between the two designs, for
what concerns the quality of the power.
1. THDi, the lower, the better. As already summarized in Table 1 at item #3, the THDi
depends on the topology of the rectifier. If the rectifier is IGBT based and the UPS has
proper passive LC filtering, then the THDi will be around 3-4%, regardless if the UPS is
transformer-based or not. However, it is worth mentioning that old thyristor-based UPS,
which generate high THDi, are also transformer-based and are still present in the
portfolio of some manufacturers. In other words, choosing a transformer-less UPS means
excluding automatically thyristor based rectifier UPS.
2. THDU, like the THDi, the lower, the better. Let’s analyze the transformer-less design first;
as the switching frequency of the transformer-less UPSs is usually around or above 15
kHz, the output voltage includes few low-order harmonics (the low-order are the ones

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 with higher amplitude, hence the one generating more total harmonic content) and the
passive LC filtering is more than enough to keep THDU low. 2% is today the TDHU value
of transformer-less UPS and such value is more than OK, meaning that there is no effect
on the load side. On the contrary, transformer based UPS are generating more low-order
harmonic content as their switching frequency ranges from 1 kHz to 3kHz; so the
transformer is used as a filter for those low-order harmonics and the THDU at the output
results to be also around 2%. As a conclusion, we can say that the output THDU of UPS
is today practically equal among the most manufacturers and it isn’t worth to have an
output transformer (maybe external) whose sole purpose is to lower the THDU further
down, if the UPS already guarantees 2%.
3. Input PF, the closer to 1.0 (restive) the better. Like for the THDi, the “responsible device”
for the input Power Factor is the rectifier (and the input filters). As already mentioned in
Table 1 at item #4, on the transformer-based UPS the PF typically varies with the amount
of load (aggravates with the decreasing of the load) due to passive filtering numb
rectifiers (without active PF correction). As UPS systems are practically never fully
loaded, but typically loaded between 25% and 75%, the input PF results to be capacitive
and this is a big disadvantage as anyone in the UPS industry knows. transformer-less
UPS typically have rectifiers with active PF correction, thus have the PF very close to
resistive (0.99) at all load levels.

• Fault tolerant
Some people in the market are still claiming that when having a transformer in the UPS it will be
better able to handle internal and external faults or short circuits. This may have been true two
decades ago, but today’s this is not the case anymore. Transformerless UPSs have internal
circuitry, fast fusing and fast digital controls that allow the machine to effectively handle internal
shorts such as e.g. a short on the inverter bridge. Like many UPS manufacturers, ABB has on
every UPS series the necessary circuitry and fuses to protect the power converters including the
battery charger.

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Conclusions
When designing medium to large power supply systems, there are numerous factors to be taken into
account, which can be grouped into the following categories: safety, availability, flexibility, impact on
environment and cost. Now, if in theory, all is nice and easy and we want to have all the above mentioned
categories matching 100%, in practical life the best solution is the best compromise. This is valid for all
applications. It may be type of application, or the criticality of the business connected to that power
supply, or the business-model of the end-user, etc. that determine which is the best compromise for each
installation.

Now that the pro and cons of the two UPS designs have been explained in this paper, we can conclude
that the use of transformer-free UPS allow to achieve the best compromise by fulfilling by far the majority
of the power supply design factors. For the customers it means that the modern transformer-free UPS
design matches today’s customer requirements much more widely than the transformer-based.