DC Microgrid and its advantages

Introduction
Energy efficiency has become a key element in the design and construction industry.
Because of increased energy costs over the past several decades and the shift in philosophy to
reduce the environmental impact that humans have on the world, it seems that every watt
counts. For many years there has been an ideal that inexpensive energy was the only metric
that mattered; it was only the energy bill that owners and operators cared about. As long as it
was cheap, no one seemed to mind.

However, because of a conscious shift to protect natural resources many people are
choosing to pay the premium in order to use renewable resources. Because of the high
upfront cost of renewable, designers and owners are attempting to reduce energy usage in
order to get the most out of limited resources.

The concept of energy savings has shifted from the load to a global perspective,
including the generation source and, distribution efficiency. Considering distribution, the
world has a plague of wasteful energy conversions from alternating current to direct current
and vice versa.

Electrical power is the only thing that drives the human towards their luxuries. Most
of the electrical power being generated is by burning fossil fuels which will release Green
House Gases like carbon dioxide (CO2).Approximately 40% of global CO2 emission are
emitted by burning fossil fuels for generation of electrical power.

As a result of emission of these Green House Gases the average surface temperature is
increased by 0.74oC. If these carbon emissions are not controlled, the temperature is expected
to rise by 3.4 oC by the end of this century.

Developing countries like our India which has 13.7% of GDP (as per 2013) from
agriculture sector which will be stressed by unseasonal storms resulted from global warming
because of green house gases emission.

Electrical power is part and parcel of our life and we cant imagine a day without
power, we need to go for alternatives which dont show effect on environment. Electricity
generation by adopting renewable and distributed generation or local generation with the use
of solar power, biogas/biomass, wind etc, which will be supported by battery storage.

Introduction to DC Microgrid
Photovoltaic (PV) arrays and wind turbines are more compatible with dc than with ac
systems. The efficiency of PV arrays integrated with AC Systems is less when compared to
DC systems because of reduction of number of conversion stages from AC to DC and DC to
AC.

Only two conversion stages are required for the array to feed a nonlinear load via a dc
system compared to five stages if an ac system is utilized. This reduction in the number of
conversion stages significantly increases power conversion efficiency: approaching 98 % in
dc systems compared to 86 % in ac systems.

Along with renewable DG units, electronic loads have also become an integral feature
of modern life. New high-efficiency and high-quality dc lighting systems have been invented,
and the operation of major loads such as modern elevator motors is based on variable speed
drives. Another key load in future electric distribution systems comes from plug-in electric
vehicle (PEV) technology, and other evolving innovations, such as solid-state transformers,
will also increase the drive toward the implementation of dc systems [4]. Additional
considerations include the following beneficial characteristics of dc distribution systems:

Higher overall system efficiency

Easier expansion of power capacity
Less interference with ac grids
Absence of issues related to frequency stability and reactive power
Lack of the skin effect and losses associated with ac systems

Advantages of DC Microgrid
The advantages of a Microgrid are:

1) System Efficiency

2) Reliability of Power

System Efficiency
Electrical efficiency has traditionally been defined as how efficiently the power within the
building is being used. As a society, this creates a skewed result when measuring how
efficient electrical systems are. For many purposes this is still an accurate measure when
comparing AC buildings vs. other AC buildings. However, this type of comparison does not
take into account the transmission and conversion losses that occur in the system, the losses
are simply held constant between structures. This paper will only be interested in the losses
occurring from onsite generation and the assumption is that all transmission remains in 50Hz
AC form.

Conversion Losses
As discussed previously, the load profile has shifted from AC to more and more DC loads
over the past several decades and is continuing down that path. The driving factor in
efficiency for many of todays devices is the conversion from AC power to DC power. It is
not possible to get a 100% efficient conversion from one form to the other. The energy is lost
to either heat, magnetism, or shunted to ground depending on the conversion technique. As
loads go more and more to DC the amount of these losses is increasing at the same rate.
These conversions are happening all over buildings and they are often not considered when
designing a system.
 Consider any data centre which is powered with power electronic devices. This data
centre is equipped with uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). Power is converted from AC
power to DC for storage in a battery, then converted back into AC for the server plug. The
server then converts it back into DC power for use in the processors. At this point there is an
AC to DC to AC to DC conversion. Now, for arguments sake, say that this power is produced
from a solar panel that the owners have decided to install on the roof. Photovoltaic panels
naturally produce DC power that is then typically inverted. To get power from the solar panel
into the server there is a DC to AC to DC to AC to DC conversion in a standard grid
arrangement. Each of these conversions has losses between 10% and 25%. Assuming only a
10% loss at each of these conversions is a generous number when using high quality power
electronic devices.

Consider a data centre which is being supplied with 500watts supply involving 4 stage
conversion processes. So losses involved in each conversion process will be

500watts*10%= 50watts for single conversion process

So Total loss incurred in 4-Stage conversion process is 200watts.

This mean the generation draw would be 700W (500W for the load and 200W in loss).

However, with losses being multiplicative, what actually happens is:

500
= 762
(90%)4

We are supplying 500watts power but the server is taking 762watts power. This means
262watts are counted as loss of power. If we assume Rs.6/KWh, and if the server is made to
run throughout the day, the total cost incurred in losses is

24 365 1 . 6
262 = . 13,770
1000

Now let us consider DC-DC Converters which offer 98% efficiencies in most
applications.

Examining the same scenario but with DC distribution: Start with the PV panel producing
power at a unknown voltage, this feeds into a DC to DC converter that brings the voltage up
to 380VDC for distribution throughout the facility. This power is then run through a DC to
DC converter that steps the voltage down to 24VDC. This 24VDC is then used to operate a
charge controller in the UPS. A charge controller is nothing more than a DC to DC converter
with some programming to shut off when the battery is charged, to protect the battery cells.
From the UPS it is then stepped down inside the computer from 24VDC to a usable voltage
of often 5V. So the scenario is a DC to DC to DC to DC to DC conversion chain (4-Stage
conversion).

500
= 542
(98%)4
 The yearly cost of loss incurred in this system is

24 365 1 . 6
42 = . 2207
1000

By choosing DC distribution system on AC Distribution system the consumer is going to

save his expenses by

13770 2207 = . 11562/

Reliability of Power
Reliability is a major concern for a large number of industries and businesses. Many of the
power failures that occur do not happen as a result of issues with generation. Transmission
has long been the weak spot for reliability. This is not hard to imagine when you consider the
distances that much of the power is travelling. Often it is things such as ice storms or strong
winds that can cause these circuits to be compromised. Other times it is things such as
lightning strikes, car accidents, or something crossing the lines that can lead to a power
outage. The obvious answer to solve these problems is to simply eliminate the transmission
lines and produce power on site. Fewer lines equal fewer places for failure. Many DC
Microgrid have the ability to draw fully from the grid when the onsite generation sources are
offline due to weather or maintenance. Gas services that feed devices such as the micro
turbines and fuel cells are significantly more reliable than electrical services due to the
protected nature of the infrastructure. Overall, the nature of onsite generation paired with grid
redundancy results in a more reliable system than a standard AC only distribution system in a
building, as well as providing a higher quality power