DC vs. AC distribution: Revealing the efficiency advantage of DC in today's energy landscape.

Abstract

The new millennium witnessed an unanticipated escalation in the installation of rooftop solar panels, particularly due to the development of highly efficient power electronic converters (PECs). The 'battle of currents' between AC and DC, which settled in the favor of AC in the nineteenth century, reignited as DC is striking back due to this technological augmentation. The shifting trend towards DC is more pronounced in the residential sector, which necessitates a comparative analysis of AC and DC at distribution scale on realistic grounds. Modern home data extracted from the energy information administration (EIA) has been utilized to devise a mathematical model based on bottom-up approach. The comparative analysis has been performed encompassing scenarios of varying PEC efficiencies as a result of daily load variation. Moreover, the scenarios of multiple PEC efficiencies and rooftop solar capacities are also considered. The comparative analysis revealed efficiency advantage of 1.966%, 1.41% and 1.17% in favor of DC as compared to AC for the scenarios considered. In the end future recommendations are presented to further enhance the efficiency of DC, thereby providing a concrete standing for power industry decision of adopting DC at distribution scale.