直流微电网可以帮助确保稳定和高效的智能能源

　　直流微电网可以帮助确保稳定和高效的智能能源

　　Thomas Edison，除了支持直流配电在臭名昭著的“电流的战争“特斯拉和西屋的观点对能源供应和可持续发展，是政策发展到今天惊人的相似。他赞成使用当地的发电，这将减少直流输电损耗，并着迷于利用可再生能源，如风能，太阳能和潮汐的前景。

　　当然，今天人们越来越关注化石燃料的未来及其对环境的影响，这正是政策制定者对可再生能源的关注。同时，本地发电–是否连接到主电网的孤岛已经成为实用和经济上可行的技术进步带来了小型光伏阵列和风力涡轮机在企业、金融及小农场，和一些房主。从这些发电机的输出通常是DC，必须在适当的频率和电压转换成AC之前，它可以被送入本地线路电源。用于实现这一点的功率调节电路消耗了宝贵的收获能量的百分之几。如果可以消除一个直流-交流逆变器的需要，可以节省能源

　　Since Edison’s time， electricity consumption has increased significantly; in particular， through growing use of equipment such as PCs， mobile chargers， flat-panel televisions， and small office machines that are fundamentally DC-powered systems. Moreover， incandescent lighting is being phased out in favor of DC-powered LED replacements. Energy saving variable-frequency drives in appliances that traditionally contained AC induction motors such as washing machines or refrigerators now convert the AC line supply to DC before reconstructing an AC waveform at the right frequency to achieve the desired motor speed. In the longer term， the outlook for widespread use of plug-in hybrid or electric vehicles will further shift the balance of demand towards native DC loads that can operate more efficiently from a DC power source， eliminating the need for an AC/DC power supply at the input. The Electrical Power Research Institute （EPRI） estimates the efficiency gain for direct use of on-site renewable energy without conversion to AC could be up to 15%.

　　Today’s AC power grid， however， represents an enormous investment in equipment and technology. Moreover， vast quantities of appliances are currently in use that have been designed to run from a high-voltage AC supply， and would need to be adapted to run from a DC supply， or otherwise replaced. Consequently， a revolutionary change to adopt DC distribution is impractical.