R&W aims to make DC minigrids the new industry standard

With a unique innovation in terms of intelligence and variability, Commeo GmbH, the specialist for energy storage technology, and Richter R&W GmbH, the expert for instrumentation and control technology, aim to revolutionise power supply both in industry and in municipal buildings and facilities. The project partners are offering a DC minigrid for various applications, in which the battery storage is connected directly to the photovoltaic array and the consumers by means of the DC/DC actuator. This will reduce the previously unavoidable conversion losses caused by inverters to a minimum, and substantially maximise the efficiency of the energy yield.
There are currently only very few direct current grids in industrial applications. However, since many components of the power grids are operated using direct current, power supply units and inverters are necessary at a number of different places in order to allow the available energy to be used. This means that if DC grids were used directly, the losses occurring during conversion could be considerably reduced, resulting in a significant increase in efficiency. For this reason, the project partners Commeo and Richter R&W aim to integrate standardised DC minigrids into everyday industrial practices and render many AC components superfluous.
Increasing the overall degree of efficiency
As well as an innovative energy management system which decides, depending on the load, whether the battery storage should be charged or discharged, or whether the power generated by the photovoltaic array should be fed in directly, a new, intelligent battery technology is needed for the new system. In order to satisfy all the requirements, Commeo divides the energy storage into different sections virtually. The distribution of the capacity across different areas of application maximises

the use of the energy storage block. In the process, the intelligent system autonomously calculates the battery capacity to secure the UPS reserve based on energy forecasts, the consumption level and the specified emergency power availability. The system uses the remaining capacity to take the strain off the grid connection point by means of load transfer and to optimise internal consumption. These technological capabilities are also needed for the commercial use of electromobility and are therefore pioneering for a successful energy transition.
Extremely short response times
The modularity of the battery achieved in this case is, at present, unique. The developer teams at Commeo and Richter R&W have concentrated on guaranteeing particularly straightforward integration of the battery and energy system by means of an open communication interface to the respective overall system. “In addition, it was important to enable extremely short response times by the battery in order to exploit the full potential of the DC minigrid,” explains David Pier, project engineer at Commeo. “With the approach based on a configurable modular energy system connected to modular battery storage, we are responding to our customers’ specific requests and the specific requirements of their industries,” says Bernd Zeilmann, Managing Director of Richter R&W GmbH, to sum up.