Evaluation Engineeering - 6

REGENERATIVE POWER SUPPLIES & SOURCES

Sponsored by

Chroma 15kW 62000D bidirectional DC
power supply in 3U for 48V HEV motor
inverter test, DC-DC converters, on-board
chargers, and other power conversion
applications.

SPECIAL REPORT

RETURNING THE POWER
Vendors constantly challenged to find efficiency
gains in regenerative power supplies & loads
By Mike Hockett, Editor-in-Chief
As manufacturers of all
types of mechanical
equipment work toward using energy efficiently, regenerative power technology
has taken a major role in
reducing operating costs.
Power regeneration is the
process of recovering kinetic
energy created by a motor
when stopping or braking,
and then converting that
energy to electricity and
feeding it back into the power grid. Hybrid and electric
vehicles are the first examples that typically come to
mind, but other applications
that involve frequent stopping and starting-such as hoists, cranes, elevators,
spindle drives, and decanter centrifuges-can also put significant energy to
recycled use.
This is equally true in electronic test.
With energy efficiency at a premium for
those performing high-power tests, power
supply customers must factor in a product's lifetime operational costs, which
often exceed initial capital investment.

6

EVALUATION ENGINEERING SEPTEMBER 2019

Chroma 61800 regenerative
grid simulators for micro-grid,
PV inverter, PCS/ESS, UPS,
EVSE, and DC quick charger
test applications.

Today, vendors of regenerative power supplies
and sources market not
only their solutions' low
cost of ownership, but
many newer solutions
also feature lower floor
or rack space usage,
low heat dissipation,
and mimimal required
maintenance.
"In addition to reducing form factor
and increasing power densities, bidirectional supplies and regenerative sources
need to apply to a wider range of technologies and then put power back into the
grid to increase testing efficiency and,
ultimately, reduce the carbon footprint,"
Steve Grodt, director of business development at Chroma Systems Solutions,
recently told Evaluation Engineering.
"An example of this is the EV industry.

Vehicle-to-grid technology allows the
bidirectional flow of power between
the vehicle's power system and the power grid. This technology provides power
utilities flexibility in achieving voltage
regulation, load leveling, peak load shaving, and improvements in stability. End
users benefit by reducing energy costs
when power is sold back to the grid.
However, aside from the paybacks, success in developing bidirectional components relies heavily on the DVT phase,
where bidirectional test equipment may
not be readily available."
As for what challenges vendors of regenerative power supplies & loads are facing today, Drodt pointed to the effective
control of the heat generated from the
power stage and optimizing the entire
system with a cost-effective design.
"In essence, these are two products in
one, and a four-quadrant solution may not
be the right fit for all," Drodt explained.
"Makers of regenerative sources and
supplies need to find the right balance
between efficiency, heat generation, function, and cost in order to for the product
to make sense to the market. We think
we've done that at Chroma."
To dive further into this topic, we at
EE gathered input from various vendors
and their partners that produce and/
or market regenerative power supplies
& sources. We asked them for their
thoughts on technology trends, challenges, and customer needs, as well as
what new solutions they've recently made
available and how they're being applied.
Here's what they told us.

What's trending?
What technology or market trends are
vendors seeing in the area of regenerative
power supplies & sources?
Herman van Eijkelenburg, director of
marketing at PPST Solutions: "New
trends in regenerative DC power supplies
are led by the need for ever-increasing
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