Comparative Analysis of Various Topologies for AC and DC Power Distribution Systems on Efficiency Grounds

Efficiency is the factor that once wiped DC out of the power system at the birth of electricity, in nineteenth century. The battle of currents between AC and DC has reignited with the aggravating employment of DC in the sectors of generation, transmission, and utilization. This calls for cutting edge research in the field of comparative efficiency analysis of AC and DC, on distribution scale. The current research effort compares AC and DC distribution systems on efficiency grounds, for various topologies. The two systems are compared employing normal distribution technique for residential load profile. The varying efficiency of power electronic converters (PECs) with stochastic load profiles is modeled using MATLAB/SIMULINK, for each topology. DC takes the lead against AC with efficiency advantage for energy efficient load-based architectures. The architectures with variable speed drive-based loads, the efficiency advantage in favor of DC is between 1% and 2%, however, the efficiency advantage reaches to 12% with inherent DC loads. In contrast, AC takes the lead with conventional distribution, with an efficiency advantage between 4% and 5%. The findings of current research work can prove to be beneficial in making policy decisions for the adoption of DC at distribution scale.