Electricity 4.0 and Industry 4.0 will come together as our Sustainability North Star.
Electricity 4.0 is Schneider Electric’s unique Energy Management vision to help our customers achieve their energy and sustainability goals from strategy to execution, globally and locally. Digitalisation and electrification are the two pillars of Electricity 4.0.
Industry 4.0 also encompasses digitalisation at its core, as it revolutionises factories with sensors, robotics, and software to ingest and analyse massive amounts of data to facilitate better outcomes.
Power (Electricity 4.0) and Process (Industry 4.0) seem to be converging progressively, due to the similarity of technologies (e.g. power electronic converters, controllers, automation software).
DC Microgrid, then becomes our means.
Integral part of Electricity 4.0 and Industry 4.0 is a DC Microgrid. A DC Microgrid at an Energy User’s location can be formed by combining local renewable generation with local electrical energy storage and all the local electrical loads, through a local DC bus. This DC Microgrid can co-exist with the main Alternating Current (AC) grid (run by the distribution network operator) without congesting it and can become the solution for every User’s energy trilemma (security, affordability, and sustainability). It has been proven through proof-of-concepts and through practical pilots that these Microgrids implemented through Direct Current (DC) can be:
- Shorter duration projects, due to faster planning permission,
- Operated easily as there’s only voltage (and no synchronisation) to worry about,
- Less demanding of the existing main AC grid, due to the reduction of peak demand,
- Cheaper in operational costs through better energy choice & energy recovery, and
- Cheaper in capital investment by guaranteeing interoperability among equipment.
Figure 1: Current/OS characterization of a typical DC Microgrid (reference public version of the Current/OS System Reference Document)
Figure 2: ODCA characterization of a typical DC Microgrid (reference ODCA specification)
DC Alliances aid co-operation and coopetition. They symbolize a “marketplace”.
A DC Alliance is exactly what the word alliance classically means: an association based on similarity of interests, formed for mutual benefit in the world of DC. Alliances themselves serve the purpose, while working as non-profits. Various types of organisations have become members of these DC Alliances: manufacturers of different equipment like breakers, converters, loads, cables, busways, chargers, heat pumps, etc., consultants or design firms, contractors, service companies, testing & certification agencies, laboratories, research institutions, universities, utilities, and municipalities. It then goes without saying that the entire eco-system needed for implementing a DC Microgrid gets mirrored in a DC Alliance, making it a one-stop “marketplace” for the owner or the operator of the DC Microgrid.
DC Alliances usually start regional, and they aim to expand. Also, they co-operate among themselves.
You can always find through a simple web search when the following DC Alliances were started, or who started them. What is essential to keep in mind though is that these DC Alliances started regionally (if not in one country) at their inception.
Two DC Alliances (Current/OS and Open DC Alliance) started primarily in Europe. The PEDF (PV, Energy Storage, DC & Flexibility) serves in China and EMerge Alliance serves primarily in North America. K-DC Alliance has recently been started in South Korea. There may be others soon or in the offing. Interestingly, inter-alliance co-operation is common among these DC Alliances. For example, regular interactions happen among various committees or working groups of these Alliances.
Though many different alliances usually mean a splintering of efforts, we in Schneider Electric view the number of Alliances as an indication of the growing interests. In the larger picture of DC, if the Alliance landscape can be managed as an Alliance of Alliances, by minimising the technical differences, every stakeholder will benefit in the end. Consequently, Schneider Electric want to be a part of all the DC Alliances and contribute to their purposes.
DC Alliances channel common voice to improve existing, or to create new, standards.
Typically, a committee or a working group in each DC Alliance looks at how a DC Microgrid system can be described, or can be implemented, in a System Reference Document. Once there’s a common alignment among the Alliance partners, then they channel this to various national or international standard organisations; given the alignment, evolution or creation of the relevant standards becomes easier. For example, both Current/OS and ODCA are Liaison A members of IEC’s SyC LVDC (Low Voltage Direct Current and Low Voltage Direct Current for Electricity Access). Scope of this System Committee is to “widely consult within the IEC community and the broader stakeholder community to provide overall systems level value, support and guidance to the IEC Technical Committees”.
DC Alliances help to standardize the Standards.
If all the DC Alliances co-operate among themselves, there is a great chance that each of them can take similar, if not identical, system reference documents and equipment specifications to the various national or international standard organisations. This, unlike in AC, can help to minimise the technical differences, making sure that every stakeholder benefits in the end. And when the respective first versions of these standards are close enough to each other as a baseline, future evolutions of the standards can easily catch up with each other.
DC Alliances’ main purpose is to reduce the capital investment needed for a DC Microgrid. Operational costs also get optimized.
With both intra-alliance co-operation, and inter-alliance co-operation, the primary aim is to align the standards’ technical requirements. And hopefully, this will result in close-enough standards, thereby making sure that functionally there’s inter-operability between all the equipment in a DC Microgrid, even if they come from different manufacturers. As you can guess, this goes on to make DC Microgrid’s capital investment cheaper as guaranteed inter-operability offers greater choice of equipment. By extension, inter-operability also means that the operational costs can be optimised.
Schneider Electric lead the efforts in shaping the New Energy Landscape built by DC Microgrids, co-existing with the main AC grid.
As a founding member of Current/OS and ODCA, and as an active member of the other DC Alliances, Schneider Electric actively lead the charge (pun intended). Through these DC Alliances, we intend to facilitate DC Microgrid Grid set-up in every Energy User’s site, solving that User’s trilemma (security, affordability, and sustainability). We intend to work with the Partners in each DC Alliance to usher in the New Energy Landscape, in a form that would benefit the entire world. After all, Schneider’s purpose is to create Impact by empowering all to make the most of our energy and resources, bridging progress and sustainability for all. At Schneider we call this Life is On.
It is time to get the DC Microgrid On! (again, pun intended).
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