Background

With the steady growth of renewable energies and electromobility, energy storage and thus the ability to transmit energy bidirectionally is becoming more and more important – because bidirectional power supplies do more than just allow surplus energy from wind and solar power to be fed into the grid and drawn out again when required. They can also help to counteract fluctuations in the grid and improve network stability. The electric vehicles market also benefits from bidirectional charging stations – as well as charging the vehicle battery, they also enable energy to be fed back into the grid or the vehicle to be used as a mobile power source.

Advantages / Solution

The use of batteries involves the charging, storage, and discharging of energy. Making this energy conversion as efficient as possible means using devices with high conversion efficiency. One such device is MEAN WELL’s BIC-2200 bidirectional charger. Combining the functions of a charger and an inverter in a single device, it acts as both a power source and a load. This reduces both the overall cost and the installation space required in applications.

• High efficiency: With 93% efficiency, the BIC-2200 converts direct current into alternating current and vice versa, and delivers THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) of <3% in both conversion modes.

• Ultrafast switching: AC/DC and DC/AC switching in just 1ms.

• Active parallel operation up to 11,000W (4+1) and charging/discharging mode.

• Fully digital 2.2 kW power supplies with energy recycling in a low-profile 1U design.

Numerous protection functions give a wide-ranging application spectrum: anti-islanding, AC fail, DC-OVP, OLP, OCP and OTP.

Applications

The application areas for bidirectional power supplies are manifold. They allow energy to be exchanged between different sources and loads, for example in smart grids and decentralised energy systems, and ensure greater flexibility in energy management. They allow energy to be recovered and stored, a crucial characteristic for renewable energy systems. And with their ability to feed energy back into the mains network, voltage fluctuations can be balanced out, load peaks reduced, and renewable energies used flexibly – resulting in lower power costs in home energy storage systems and companies.

Image 2: During battery formation and grading, the BIC-2200 is used to charge the batteries. Simultaneously, the energy released by the battery can be fed back into the power grid and made available to other AC appliances [Source: MEAN WELL]