Ally Winning, European Editor, PSD
Welcome to the September edition of Power Systems Design Europe. The Chinese have a curse that goes along the lines of, may you live in interesting times. During the past few years, it feels as if someone has used that curse on the world. Covid, semiconductor shortages, breaks in the global supply chain, war in Europe, and trade wars are just some of the unfortunate events that have hit the planet over the past few years. Now, China has implemented legislation banning the export of gallium and germanium without a license. There’s never a dull moment in the world these days, and I’m sure we’d all like to live in less interesting times. Fortunately, it looks like the Chinese ban on gallium exports may not be as crippling as it first appears. I go into more depth on that in my Final Thought column at the back of this magazine.
In our Special Report this month we feature Test and Measurement. That subject is growing in importance in the industry as switching speeds get faster and details that didn’t factor much in the past are now becoming critical roadblocks in designs. Even storage technologies, such as batteries, require all aspects of their performance to be understood – not least an accurate estimate of their capacity and how long they can provide their charge. The simplistic calculations that were used in the past are no longer enough. In the first article in our Special Report, Brian Whitaker, Product Marketing Engineer, at Keysight Technologies describes how emulation can be used to provide accurate results while cutting test times. The technique is safer than testing physical batteries, which require repeated charging and discharging.
The second article in this month’s Special Report comes from Megger. In the piece, Dr. Ahmed El-Rasheed, Industry Director – Renewables, talks about the need for on-site testing at electric vehicle charging facilities. The number of chargers for EVs is expanding rapidly due to funding from both private and public sources. Those new chargers are putting a huge strain on our power grids, which has led to a situation where over a fifth of charging attempts fail. Although today’s chargers feature telemetry, it is only by visiting the site that reliable, in-depth testing can be performed.
The third article in the Special Report was written by Roland Buerger from DANISENSE. In the article, Roland looks at power conversion in renewable applications, and how it can introduce both harmonics and DC injection into the circuit. DC injection can also be caused by non-linear loads. It can cause problems for inductive equipment which is not designed to handles those loads. The article describes how measuring DC injection can be achieved using reliable, high performance current sensors and PQAs.
As well as the articles in the Special Report, this month’s issue also features general power articles in our Tech Focus section, along with the latest news and views from the industry.
Best Regards
Ally Winning
European Editor, PSD
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