UPS front-end reference model

Context

Grid studies of an uninterruptible power supply need a model of its front end that runs fast enough for system-level simulation while still representing the real behavior of the rectifier.

Constraint

A switched model is too slow for the study, and a model handed over without a validation scaffold cannot be trusted by the engineer who receives it. The distinction between what has been validated and what has merely been implemented has to survive the handover.

Contribution

I built the first executable reference layer for the alternating-current front end of a 67 kilowatt three-phase supply: a unidirectional Vienna or T-type power-factor-correction stage represented as a controlled voltage source, with input inductors and capacitors, a split DC link, and a passive DC-side load.

Approach

The design is two-layered by intent — a readable Python reference model acting as an executable specification and regression environment, and a canonical implementation layer for the production equations behind a stable interface. Version 0.1 implements the Python layer only, and the repository states plainly that control and protection code, component validation against measurement, and the target simulator integration are absent rather than implied.

Outcome

A grid study can proceed against a model whose scope and limits are written down, which is the condition for the result to be usable by someone who did not build it.

Evidence

The work is held in a private repository. The frozen version 0.1 scope, the two-layer architecture, and the explicit exclusions are recorded there.