DC-Schiene

The energy turnaround is one of the greatest challenges for the manufacturing industry in Germany. Global political events make the reduction of energy consumption at all levels urgent. Increasing energy efficiency, conserving limited resources, increasing flexibility to respond appropriately to fluctuating energy supplies, optimizing the use of renewable energy sources, and increasing the robustness of production in the face of fluctuating energy supply quality are tasks facing Germanys industry. Industrial DC grids offer significant advantages here compared to the three-phase 400V AC power supply. The trend is toward the use of energy-efficient, variable-speed electric drives with frequency converters, which always require energy conversion from AC voltage to DC voltage by means of B6 rectifiers. In DC networks, a central controlled rectifier can be used instead. Inverters can be operated on the DC bus so that both conversion losses can be reduced and regenerative energy can be used directly. Storages and renewable energy sources, which
also benefit from the use of a common DC bus, can be integrated with much less effort. The focus of the joint project DC-Schiene is on research into resource-saving and energy-efficient DC rail systems for mobile industrial applications inside and outside buildings as a substitute for the state of the art with three-phase conductors. Optimized components (active infeed converters, DC/DC converters, inverters and protection components) are to be developed and tested in realistic application scenarios. In the TH-OWL sub-project, efficiency optimized active infeed converters and DC/DC converters are being developed for operation on industrial DC grids. A test facility for high-current rail systems is also being built.