Within five years the future generation of power electronic products are 20 % more cost effective,
has 20 % reduced volume and weight. Added to that they have reduced the power losses
which contributes to a higher power efficiency. A joint development and research effort enabled
by the platform will include three universities and four Danish leading high-technology companies
and the network organisation CEES.

The success of the platform is quantified in the following:

• Synergy resulting from joint technology development
• Reduced cost by at least 20%, min. 20% less weight, volume and improved efficiency
• To demonstrate the usability of new technologies in future products
• Technology platform for new intelligent power electronic concepts
• Tools that can be used for future power electronic equipment design
• Attract and facilitate new companies exploiting platform knowledge
• Fast and flexible incorporation of ideas for potential exploitation
  
  

The platform supports each company's research and development of own products, and initiates
future new products which have a common commercial interest such as targeting intelligent
handling and use greener energy supply - exemplified by "Smart Grid", "Energy Efficient
Production " "Renewable energy production ","Smart Cities "," Energy Neutral Buildings”, "
Smart House "," Mobile Power ".

The platform delivers knowledge within

• New hardware design methods
• Intelligent control methods for power electronic systems
• New device technologies
• Intelligent communication and interaction between system components
• Interconnection technology and management of complex / embedded systems

In a global world the cost of producing in Denmark are among the highest in the world, which is why new solutions are essential to maintain a competitive position in a globalized world. Not only innovative products, but also producing the products in a smarter and more efficient way should be among the milestones.

The platform enables development and production of products and solutions based on a high level of knowledge generating a sustainable business. Intelligent products will further facili-tate future production in Denmark.

Therefore it is important that the business is not - as traditionally - based on the individual com-ponents typically produced outside of Denmark, but from the beginning aimed at higher levels in the value chain, as illustrated in the figure below.

The platform bridges the fundamental technologies and final system solutions through innovative products which in the end will enable a stronger global market position. In parallel, as indicated in the figure, activities are go-ing on in research and development of reliable power electronics where a new centre is being established (CORPE).

Connecting solar and wind power units to the grid are traditionally considered as a disturb-ance of the grid and the idea here is to change this paradigm so the units are designed much better to support the grid by more efficient and intelligent power electronics. The interconnection of wind turbines to the grid in large wind parks or smaller groups affects the grid as it receives the generated power. Typically, the customers are the utility companies and a strong cooperation is seen between them and the manufacturers in the project phases. IEPE will pro-vide new interfacing and control technology to increase the number of wind turbines in the grid in order to extend the zone of site possibilities. The utility can use the existing grid – and post-pone or eliminate a costly grid extension. The market has a strong need to enable the connec-tion of as many wind turbines as possible into the existing grid and by that saving billions on grid strengthening. The technology will be a strong sales argument for the participating company’s products. Some of the technology is also portable to the solar power.

Internal interconnection of the wind turbine power electronic converters is used to obtain a high power by paralleling single units as well as to reduce system cost and increase CoE. Pres-ently, the standard is to use interconnecting inductances between the paralleled inverters and one idea here is to eliminate the use of interconnection inductances since they are relatively expensive, bulky and heavy. Also the losses in the passive components are an issue. Instead, precise and advanced control of the power semiconductor devices in the converters is needed.

New type of sensor and monitoring technology will be developed for IGBTs and diodes, where the IGBT is not only protected against short circuit current but also the health states of the devices are monitored in order to obtain a higher reliability. Such technology requires inno-vative ideas to enable a measurement of device state e.g. measurement of on-state voltage drop with an mV resolution – known systems only use a simple threshold to detect if the device is short-circuited. The idea is to have information about the system state from each power semiconductor device. Interpretation of this information is used locally in the converter but it can also be sent to a remote server facility monitoring the overall health state – including remaining lifetime of all devices. This technology is so complex and new, so it is developed for MW wind turbines first, but the idea is also relevant for W and kW applications and the potential benefits of the idea are many.