Prediction on Future DC Power System

Qianzhi Zhou1,Senior Member of IEEE, Defang Yuan2

1. Key Laboratory of Power Electronics & Motion Control, Anhui University of Technology, Maanshan, 243002,China
2. Innovative Power Canada, Ottawa, K1V1Z3, Canada

Abstract- Analyzed some serious issues, including power energy to supplying loads. However, if limited in the present power
quality and large area power interruption, require complex system and management regulation the latent capacity to save
method to overcome in 3-phase power system, so, suggested to go energy will tend to finite. And large area power interrupt
other way, proposed independent full DC power system to become problems could not be avoided even in advanced country like
one of main power systems in the future. The authors emphasized
America and Canada since the stability issue have not been
the necessity and capability of full DC power systems in the
significance of technology and energy saving, so that safer, more solved in theory and practice for complex ac systems, which
reliable, stable, flexible and controllable DC power grids could carries great economical lose. From the end of last century,
serve the people better than that of the present AC power systems. Professor Qiang Lu of Tsinghua university led his team to solve
Presented brief structure of full DC power system where DC power the stability of multi-machine operation by non-linear optimal
would be produced from multi-phase generator-rectifier group in control methods, creating good results, which let Chinese see a
power station, consumers take power from DC bus, which benefits bright prospect to avoid large area power interruption [1-2].
motor control and energy flow between loads connected the same However unstable problems not only come from generation
DC bus without 3 phase balance problems, and DC-DC converters machines, but also come from other aspects, for instance, large
based Duty-Cycle control implement commutations at two
power interconnection, renewable energy power connecting AC
terminals of HVDC transmission lines, which reduce the technical
difficulties than that in 3-phase AC commutation station. system, large load state change, etc. All above require quite
Non-crystal material with about 15 kHz of frequency could be complex control technology and a lot of key equipments, e.g.
selected for advanced isolators, so as to get smallest power PSS (power system stabilizer) and other compensators, but
consumption. Some new technology lifting DC voltage in thoroughly overcoming would not be always reached due to the
geometrical progression was suggested to be available at the sent complexity of 3-phase systems [3-4]. All above require quite
terminal of HVDC line. With the development of renewable power complex control technology matching 3-phase systems with
systems and their energy storages, DC interconnection grids could many aspect problems. So this paper introduce a both modern
be a better choice than AC interconnection grids because no and classical concept to us, which attempts to recover full DC
frequency and phase shift problems need to be considered. Bulky
power system as one of main energy flow ways for saving
3-phase transformer with industrial frequency and vary kinds of
compensators for AC power qualities could be saved. The authors energy in large scale, at the same time to avoid some technical
suggested scientific policy for economically implementing full DC problems hard to be solved in AC power systems. Although
power systems step by step. It could be predicted that people would HVDC and UHVDC transmission engineering have been
see 3 kinds of power systems, full AC, full DC and hybrid AC-DC successfully applied in the world for saving energy, we still
systems operating simultaneously by the middle of 21 century. believe that introducing full DC power system is necessary
although it would be probably criticized by a lot of people since
Index terms: DC-DC converter, energy saving, full DC power AC power systems have been operated more than one hundred
system, multi-phase generator-rectifier years that it was hard to be replaced from the peoples’ brain,
particularly, AC voltage can be conveniently changed by
I. INTRODUCTION passive methods. Hence up now, present DC systems only
partially operate in power transmission while in the generation
It is well known that human beings are facing serious
terminal and load terminal there still operate in AC manner. This
challenge of energy and resource shortage. Two aspects are
paper tries to describe the necessity and capability of creating
emphasized to resist the bad tendency developing soon. One is
full DC power system, so that it could be realized step by step
to develop new clean energy resources including renewable
and serve people actively in the future.
energy. Another is to save energy in present production and life
procedures as much as possible. It seems unfortunate that the
former measure is developed so slowly that human’s living II. SIGNIFICANCES OF FULL DC POWER SYSTEMS
environment would probably face collapse in some day of the
Control strategy and management in DC systems can be much
future. So saving energy and resources as more as possible
simpler than that in AC systems.
would prolong the coming time of that terrible day. The late the
DC systems need not deal with the problems of three-phase
day comes, the more opportunities people could gain strong new
balance, not require a lot of auxiliary compensating equipments
energy for survival. Vary kinds of methods have been adopted to
to improve power quality.
cover all parts of energy flow in the whole power system, from
New energy sources including renewable energy sources will
power generation, power delivery, transmission, conversion, up

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develop rapidly, which will be much easier linked to DC B. Key Technologies
systems than to AC systems, without considering phase shift and a) DC power production
frequencies in step. Also they will be conveniently stored in DC Then discuss the production of electric power. Should we
format not in AC format, e.g. super-capacitors, chemical come back to DC generators for constructing full DC power
batteries and photovoltaic batteries, etc. systems? If the commutation in generators is still by means of
DC transmission inside Breakeven Distance (for carbon brushes, everyone will say “No.” However, PM
overhead-line transmission between 400and700km, for cable generators could operate without brushes. Their size can be
transmission between 25 and 50km) can reduce 1/3 of line manufactured larger and larger relying on rich Rare Earth in the
consumption than AC transmission. When transmitting longer world. National Development Reform Commission of China
than Break Distance, DC transmission is more economically in reported on June 25,2008 that China is going to export large size
investment. The longer the distance is, the investment and the PM wind generator with 807kW. Up now, PM generators
operation finance will be cheaper. operating as auxiliary exciters have been widely applied in the
Also, when a DC system adopts bi-polar dual-loop world, for instance, more than 228 vaporous generators of
configuration, any fault leads to one loop out of work, another 66.93GW have been installed in China. Furthermore, to a full
loop can still operate by switch conversion, so as to avoid power DC power system, multi-phase generator technology should be
interrupter in a large area. recommended, so that multi-phase rectifier may just be matched,
All above leads to safer, more stable and reliable in DC even connected in an integral with only two polar-terminals out
systems than that in AC systems of the shell. In this situation, it is convenient to consider heat
sinks with machine shell together, at the same time, rectifier
diodes can be adopted smaller size than that to present 3-phase
III. BRIEF DISCUSSION generators. Also, the armature inductances can be used as part of
A. Structure of Full DC Power System filters, and the more the phases of the generator and the rectifier,
Fig.1 shows the outline of a full DC power system in the the better the filtering effect will be. As a result, it is unnecessary
future. The electric power would be sent from DC power station, to connect complex bulky rectifier-filter equipment with
implemented voltage lift, by initial DC chopper equipment with inductor-balance configuration (for instance dual-anti-
boost function, flowing via DC transmission, then accepted by star-connection) for increasing phases and filter effect, or only
end DC chopper equipment with buck voltage function, up to increasing a filter with smaller inductance. It is obvious that the
low voltage DC bus consumers available. For matching HVDC previous description shows a generator-rectifier scheme with
transmission voltage level, the chopper equipments at sent higher efficiency and more scientific consideration than that of
terminal and accepted terminal should be normally designed as present commutation scheme in AC generator-rectifier system,
multi-units with adjustable Duty-Cycles. At the sent terminal of which could match to HVDC transmission line via boost
HVDC, it is even unnecessary to design isolated unit between DC-DC converter. It could be extended to other large size
DC generator and chopper to transmission line, which could be generator-rectifier groups. In fact multi-phase
realized economically. But at the accepted terminal of HVDC, generator-rectifier has been successfully operated on ships, why
isolated technology should be adopted for safe operations, could not develop them in fixed power station?
which could be still realized more economically than that of
3-phase AC commutation equipment with bulky 3-phase b) DC bus to consumers
transformer of industrial frequency, where the isolated function If introduce DC bus to supply consumers, energy saving can be
would be replaced by small volume isolated transformer with realized everywhere in large scale. Since motors need use up
non-crystal materials about 15 kHz frequency. At the initial of about 30% to 40% of general power in the world [6], the speed
this century, the non-crystal high frequency material for power control inverters of DC-AC conversion may directly connect to
electrical engineering have been produced in large scale, so as to DC bus, unnecessary to operate via AC-DC-AC conversion. It
develop the production of non-crystal power transformers, the not only reduces the energy consumption due to minus devices
size of 3-phase AC transformer with industrial frequency has in former stage, but also the back energy can flow to other loads
been reported as 2500kVA[5], which would meet the needs of DC via DC bus, not lose in thermal breaking resistor. In other words,
isolated transformers with kHz frequencies in better effect, the inverter products could be designed without AC-DC stage,
getting much less consumption. so as to increase inverter efficiency themselves. Since DC drive
systems posses much better performance with easier control
method than that of AC drive systems, re-introducing DC motor
systems in some applications would be necessary, particularly
PM motors could be without brush configuration, which have
overcome the drawbacks of classical DC motors. Of course, the
different DC voltage levels supplying a series of electronics
units inside the equipment could be connected DC bus via
DC-DC converter-modules. At the same time, factor and
Fig.1 Outline of full DC power system harmonic compensation investments could be saved in DC bus
supplying consumers. Evidently, this situation especially

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benefits to the motor systems with two-quadrant or
four-quadrant operations, like rolling manufacturing, hoists
operating in factories, and elevators operating in modern
buildings, etc. for energy saving and improving industrial
processors. Similarly TVs and other home appliances like
refrigerators, air conditioners or fans could be modified the
design with only DC-AC conversion stage, or directly
re-adopting DC motors, including PM DC motors. From the
report on July in 2006 of the Motor Group of International
Energy Agency, present motor systems can save 7% electrical
energy by improving motor efficiency with inverter speed
control. It could be predicted that when previous DC bus
systems are widely realized, the validity of energy saving would
greatly exceed 7%. Particularly, some high power consumption
consumers, like electric arc furnaces, electrolysis, and Fig.2 Main series circuits for voltage lift
electroplates require DC supply originally, as well as electrical
transport systems. They might reduce power conversion times in
DC bus supply systems. At the same time, all the lights,
thermo-electric sets can match DC supplies originally.
Therefore, we are sure that DC bus systems can be better in load
operation control, performance and energy saving than that in
AC bus systems, without theoretical and technology difficulties.
It only needs that the government presents effective policies,
laws and regulations to urge the development. Sometimes the
present market stimulates some products to develop soon, while
sometimes one kind of new technology would train new product
market.

c) DC commutation technology
It is evident that the commutation equipments at two
Fig.3 Additional series circuits for voltage lift
terminals of transmission line would be with a series key
technologies waiting for research and development.
First of all is how to lift the voltage approaching to several Although in the laboratory, the authors of [7] only lifted up
hundred kV for HVDC requirement. Present DC-DC boost voltages from 20V to 660V and 910V respectively by triple-lift
conversion could be one of the choices. However, it lifts the circuits of above topologies, which seems far from application
voltage just along the arithmetic progression, which means more requirement, the circuit principle of them should be able to
stages’ converters would be adopted. Here a super-lift converter developed into large size voltage lift. Here the voltage and
increasing voltage along geometric progression created by Dr. current rate of power devices should be satisfied to large size
Fanglin Luo would be recommended [7] for saving conversion systems. One method is hybridizing the super-lift converter and
stages. In [7] two universal equations (1) and (2) were derived as ordinary boost DC-DC converter with different Duty-Cycles, so
the follow, corresponding to two categories of topologies in that the Duty-Cycle of the former could be a constant parameter
Fig.2 and Fig.3 respectively. to produce desired high voltage with little stages, while the
Duty-Cycle of the latter could be controlled for keeping voltage
Where the voltage gain of main series topology is stable. Luo group presented positive super-lift technology in [7],
and contributed negative super-lift technology in [8]. Ultra-lift
Luo Converter series are developing continuously [9], suitable
n
Vo §2−k · for special HVDC power system operating in single or dual loop,
Gm = =¨ ¸ (1) as if they would be waiting for the period of full DC power
V in © 1- k ¹
system coming in advance.
Similarly, it can be sure that some key technologies would be
While the voltage gain of additional series topology is produced, hybridizing conventional buck conversion
technology to meet the needs of application in DC bus terminal.
n-1
Vo § 2 − k · § 3−k ·
Ga = =¨ ¸ ¨ ¸ (2)
Vin © 1 - k ¹ © 1− k ¹ IV. IMPLEMENTATION POLICY
k: Duty-Cycle, n: Lift-order Maybe coming back to full DC electrical engineering would
be almost a fantastic dream. But after reading this paper, would

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you like to expect that full DC power systems become one of engineers, companies and government.
main power system formats to serve people, independently
operating from present AC grids or AC-DC hybrid grids? č CONCLUSION
Certainly starting from previous description in brief, a lot of Summing up above, it could be predicted that 21century
work should be done, for instance, stability, reliability and would be probably a period of 3 kinds of power systems, full AC,
flexibility of full DC system must be researched in theory and full DC and hybrid AC-DC systems, operate simultaneously.
practice at DC interconnection situation, some key technologies The development competition between them depends upon the
and equipments, for instance, DC generator- rectifier group, DC advantages and disadvantages of them in operation practice.
choppers for voltage lift and decrease must be researched and However the positions of them in competition would be changed
developed in new concept, as well as high voltage insulation, in certain conditions, for instance, power device develops,
EMC design, and thermal dissipation, etc. power conversion technology make progress, control theory
Perhaps, present AC grids could continuously operate at least applied to power system improves, and so on. Recall the history
half a century from now. It is impossible to waste investment to of our scope. Japanese earliest declared stopping production of
change them into DC grids. So independent full DC grids should DC motors since history entered AC motor control time in last
be first developed at two terminals of HVDC transmission line. century 90 decades, then the other countries followed one by
At the accepted terminal, it is unnecessary to realize inverter one. However if full DC power systems were really developed
connection for increasing power size of local AC grid. The new again in the future, previous declaration would seem to make a
consumers in the same area (companies or communities) may joke to human beings, since DC motor system would be one of
accept DC bus supply via chopper commutation station. Large best high performance systems directly connecting DC bus, with
scale’s manufacture, communication station and city subway are simpler control strategy. Similar example was to declare switch
especially suitable for connecting to DC grids. Then, at the sent reluctance (SR) motor outmoded in 30decades of last century
terminal, DC transmission lines might be radiated spreading out due to motor efficiency too low. However SR motor technology
from power station covering undeveloped area where AC grid developed rapidly in 80 decades of last century in Europe again,
has not yet been built. The DC grids should have better round then throughout the world after improving the structure design
railway of electrical transport, wind and solar energy power and increasing the motor efficiency. Because the human life is
station, as well as mineral field. So, full DC power system could limited quite short comparing with that of the development
operate independently. DC grids need no longer be linked to AC history of one kind of scientific technology, scholars sometimes
grids, which benefits the reliability and stability of power predict a wrong conclusion, as a result affecting the technical
systems. Some power produced from renewable energy with DC developing policy. So the authors only described the necessity
format (e.g. photovoltaic generation), including their energy and capability of full DC power system, pointing out the
storage could be easier linked to DC grids than that linked to AC synthetic effect in energy saving, safe, reliability, stability and
grids. flexibility, not said, “Replace AC system”. Let us expect the
Another strategy could be widely to realize DC bus system in birth of full DC power system in 21 century.
consumer terminal in advance.
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