Measurement Technology in Industrial Low Voltage DC grids – Requirements and Selection Procedure

Companies are increasingly looking for opportunities to reduce their energy consumption and move toward carbon-neutral production. Recent research has shown the high potential of direct current (DC) smart grids in production plants. Although they promise increased system efficiency and simplified integration of renewable energy sources or storages, there is still a lack of knowledge among product developers and production planners regarding the integration of DC grid components. Since measurement devices perform a variety of tasks, their implementation poses an even greater challenge to planners. Therefore, this paper systematically analyses different measurement use cases in terms of requirements, possible physical measurement principles, and sensor types. The results provide support for production planners and electrical product developers, improving the technology diffusion and shortening the planning times. Furthermore, a developed systematic selection procedure assists planners. The lower barrier for technology transfer to industry leads to a faster exploitation of the potential of DC powered production facilities.