PCIM Podcast

To meet the needs of E-Mobility developers and testers, today's high-power, power supplies and loads have to be programmable and able to simulate different scenarios, as well as to provide measurement data to not just test, but also validate and qualify batteries and fuel cells.

If we view this also in the context of time-to-market (and total cost of ownership), the right (bi-directional) power supply can play a role by being scalable not just in power, but also in interaction: that is, reusing tests and programming effort while transitioning from development to prototypes, and from prototypes to production.

At the end of the life cycle, after being used in E-Mobility, degraded batteries may have a second life in domestic or grid-coupled storage – but they need to be thoroughly qualified. Bi-directional power supplies can help, again, in achieving this – or in deep discharging batteries and fuel cells for recycling.

In episode 7 of "Sound On. Power On.", Michael Himmels, Head of Product Management at EA Elektro-Automatik, talks about the role of power supplies, and how they continue to rise to emerging challenges.

More information on EA Elektro-Automatik can be found here.

The design and deployment of power converters are essential for the efficiency and smooth operation of modern smart grids.

In episode 6 of the "Sound On. Power on.", Prof. Dr.-Ing. Marco Liserre, Kiel University and the new host David Hegarty talk about the role of power converters in so many parts of the modern grid.

Widespread use means efficiency makes a huge difference. Modular topologies can be tweaked to push this efficiency and reduce the effects of passive components. Central to this achieving this potential is the use of digital twins, and power-hardware-in-the-loop to enable the synergetic design and prototyping of effective modulation and control – which apart from boosting efficiencies can also improve the handling of faults at the component and system levels.

While this has long been obvious for wind and photovoltaic generation, the spread of charging stations has also created new infrastructure challenges, where smart power converters can play an essential role in grid-forming and -management, contributing to the stability of the whole system.

More information can be found in the following:

• A Comprehensive Assessment of Multiwinding Transformer-Based DC–DC Converters
• Thermal Digital Twin of Power Electronics Modules for Online Thermal Parameter Identification
• Unlocking the Hidden Capacity of the Electrical Grid Through Smart Transformer and Smart Transmission
• DC Fault Current Blocking With the Coordination of Half-Bridge MMC and the Hybrid DC Breaker
• Cross domain fusion in power electronics dominated distribution grids

Magnetic materials have a special role to play in opening the bottlenecks in achieving higher power densities, higher frequencies, and smaller and lighter components for electrical power supply systems.

This involves exploring new materials, new ways of combining materials, and new form factors. The results can stretch the specifications - such as frequencies up to the 10s of MHz - and reduce the challenges of cooling requirements, and skin and proximity effects, as well as the handling of resonant frequencies and the variety of fluxes in multifrequency components.

Listen to the fascinating conversation between Prof. Marco Jung and Prof. Peter Zacharias, Head of the Department for Electrical Power Supply Systems at Kassel University, in episode 5 of the"Sound On. Power On." podcast.

The efficiency of switch-mode power supplies impacts energy use, from the consumption of the smart-phones in our pockets, to the photovoltaics powering our grids. Pushing that efficiency beyond today's 98% has an important role to play in fighting climate change - and energy costs. While the last 40 years have brought many advances in semiconductors, there is an increasing need for investment to improve the capabilities and properties of magnetic materials too.

Prof. Marco Jung talks to Dr. Peter Wallmeier, Senior Director R&D at Delta Energy Systems, about the issues in episode 4 of the"Sound On. Power On." podcast.

They also discuss the important opportunity presented by the combination of reactive loading, renewable power sources and storage in alleviating the voltage and frequency deviations that result from the increasing stresses on our modern, complex and interconnected power grids.

More about PCIM Europe: https://pcim-europe.com

Real-time simulation helps accelerate development and derisk early implementations in the race to transform to e-mobility and renewables. (Power) hardware-in-the-loop plays an important role. Among notable current needs is to simulate the new scenarios presented by grids with converter-driven energy sources, not least in testing for resonances, or black start conditions. For real-time simulation - particularly integrating power hardware - this presents new challenges to balance stability, accuracy, speed, and scale.

Prof. Marco Jung talks to Ravinder Venugopal, Managing Director at OPAL-RT Germany, about the issues and approaches (from parallel processing to solvers and FPGAs) in episode 3 of the"Sound On. Power On." podcast.

They also discuss the future, with digital twins harnessing live data to improve real-time simulations, with the support of AI.

Get your PCIM Europe ticket here: https://pcim.mesago.com/events/en.html#conversionteaser

More about OPAL-RT Germany GmbH: https://www.opal-rt.com