1.

Title of Research Proposal:

Integration of DC Microgrid with existing system
2. 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.

Related Technology Fields:

Primary research is in the category of Power Electronics, Power Systems, and Transmission
of Electricity. However, the impact of this research will be concentrated on Renewable
Energy for Future:

Wind Generation
Photovoltaic Generation (utility-scale and community-solar)
Electric Energy Storage in the form of battery-stacks
Hydropower, Biofuels/Biomass
Interface of green micro-grids, with significant renewable sources within them and
with utility grids.
3. Brief review of the state-of-art in the field:

Good Power Quality has been the main concern for power generation utilities. But
because of growth of usage of power in industrial and residential sectors challenges the
power generation utilities to meet up with the demand. In order to meet the demand, more
fossil fuels are being burned resulting in pollution of air water and soil. India has a total of
331.11GW (As per Central Electricity Authority October-2017 Report) of installed capacity
out of which the fossil fuel based generation constitutes 66.3% and renewable energy share is
of 33.7%. Stating these facts, overall electricity coverage is limited to 81%. So in order to
give power to all, Government of India has come up with scheme Power For All which is a
joint collaboration of the Government of India with states to share funding and create overall
economic growth.

Keeping up with environmental concerns and also to provide power for all we need to
encourage renewable energy generation in addition to thermal and nuclear power generation.
The current scenario uses the renewable energy in conjunction with utility grid with help of
power electronic devices and circuits. But due to presence of these power electronic devices
and circuits there is loss of energy while converting from DC to AC and vice versa.

Starting up with environmental concerns, integrating the renewable energy sources

with utility grids using convention power electronic topology, we end up losing power in the
process of conversion. So we need to find a way to avoid conversion process (AC to DC and
vice versa) and make use of generating power using renewable energy sources.

4. Proposed DC Microgrid Technology:

The DC Microgrid technology proposed offers significant energy efficiency, cost,

reliability, and safety benefits compared to conventional alternating current (AC) systems. In
the DC Microgrid (DCMG) architecture, onsite DC distributed generation such as solar PV is
directly connected to energy-efficient DC lighting, DC ventilation, and other DC loads.

Figure-1: Configurations of conventional AC and DC Microgrid systems.

 As it is evident that DC Microgrid technology eliminates the use of AC/DC rectifiers
at the loads and reduces the need for DC/AC inverters that are currently required to
interconnect solar photovoltaics (PV) to the electric utility.

5. Proposed Interface of DC Microgrids with Existing System:

The proposed DC Microgrids are interfaced with existing system based on the
following aspects:

High Frequency Transformers

Advancements in Power Semiconductor Transistors and Diodes
Multi Level Modular Converter

a. High Frequency Transformers: Transformers with frequency greater than 50Hz can
be significantly smaller than the former one. Higher frequency implies faster mmf
variations with time hence higher emf inducted on coils, then for same voltage lower
core area is needed or lower number of turns in any case lower volume. These types
of transformers are mainly used in SMPS.
b. Advancements in Power Semiconductor Transistors and Diodes: There has been a
quiet revolution in power electronics led by advancements in wide band gap (WBG)
semiconductor devices such as MOSFETS and diodes. WBG material such as SiC at
higher voltages has faster switching speeds and lower per unit conduction voltage
drops. These two properties combined results in significant reduction in power losses
compared to converters made of basic Si devices.
c. Multi Level Modular Converters: A multi level cascaded DC-DC converter is used
for Photo Voltaic (PV) applications. The proposed system enjoys the merits of
independency, reduced volumetric dimensions and improved efficiency.

6. State-of-the Art in Power Electronic Transformers (PETs): The reduction in the weight
by HF transformers and commercial availability of greatly improved semiconductor devices,
have led to research in power-electronic transformers (PETs). These conventional converters
are controlled by pulse-width-modulation (PWM) which results in the hard-switching of
semiconductor devices, causing switching power losses in them and the high-frequency
transformer is subjected to high dV/dt (rate of change of voltage), severely stressing the
transformer insulation and causing Electro-Magnetic Interference(EMI).

7. Proposed Multi level Modular Converter based PET: At high voltage and power levels
in utility-scale applications, transformers are needed to step-down grid voltages for
integrating renewable and motors. This is shown in the figure below.
References:

1. Lamiaa Abdallah, Tarek El-Shennawy, Reducing Carbon Dioxide Emissions from

Electricity Sector Using Smart Electric Grid Applications Hindawi Publishing
Corporation, Jan 17, 2013.
2. A. K. Sahoo and N. Mohan,A power electronic transformer with sinusoidal voltages
and currents using modular multilevel converter, international Power Electronics
Conference, May,2014.
3. Downey, L, Dc Microgrids, Darnell smart grid form, San Jose, CA, October 2010.
4. BRONSON RICHARD BLASI DC MICROGRIDS: REVIEW AND
APPLICATIONS 2013.
5. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Aditya lolla, Prabhat Kaur,Solar DC Mircrogrid for Indian
Homes, IEEE Electrification Magazine, June 2016.