Project 'DC Industry' - Part 1DC instead of AC in the production grid
Research and industry are working hard to redesign the power supply for industrial systems via a smart, open DC grid. The article describes the challenges of the 'DC Industry' project and the system specification developed so far.
Due to the distributed, long rail systems, electrified monorail systems (EMS) are predestined to utilize the lower material requirements and the advantage in voltage drop of DC power distribution systems. At the Daimler plant in Sindelfingen, an EMS with a total of five vehicles has been converted to DC for the project. Each vehicle contains three motors that are controlled via inverters. Five drive manufacturers have each equipped one vehicle - both with control cabinet devices and with DC/AC converters without control cabinets.