Sustainable Cities and Society 46 (2019) 101431

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Sustainable Cities and Society

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Bus voltage level choice for standalone residential DC nanogrid T

⁎
Sonia Moussa , Manel Jebali-Ben Ghorbal, Ilhem Slama-Belkhodja
ENIT – Université de Tunis El Manar, LSE LR11ES15, B.P.37, 1002 Tunis, Tunisia

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: This paper outlines a survey of DC bus voltage levels for standalone residential DC nanogrid. The DC bus, located
Standalone residential DC nanogrid between distributed generators and loads in DC nanogrid application, is generally chosen from existing ex-
DC bus voltage perience and practices. A disparity of voltage levels is found in the literature due to lack of standardization,
Standards although some organizations actually deal with developing these standards. From this standpoint, this work
LVDC
proposes to present the elements to be taken into account in order to reach an adequate voltage level choice for a
User safety
DC home appliance
given application. User safety, efficiency and cost saving have to be ensured by this choice. Therefore, criteria
based on power consumption, area of application deployment, cable size, line transmission losses are considered.
The approach is applied to a small scale laboratory system with low power consumption and led to the choice of
48 V DC bus.

1. Introduction
Universal access to electricity has been included to be one of the
targets of the sustainable development goals adopted during the United
Nation general assembly, on the September 25th 2015 (“Transforming
our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: Sustainable
Development Knowledge Platform,” 2015).The goal is to give access to
an affordable and reliable energy for all while increasing the share of
renewable energy mix. With this initiative, an improvement in elec-
tricity access is anticipated with an electrification rate growth of 99% in
developing Asia and Latin America, 95% in the Middle East, and 59% in
sub-Saharan Africa by 2030 (“WEO-2017 Special Report,” n.d.). It is
estimated that of the million people who will still be without electricity
access in 2030, 90% live in sub-Saharan Africa (“WEO-2017 Special
Report,” n.d.). This uneven growth rate is explained by the policies,
investment and technologies adopted by each country.
Besides, several other factors can be a hindrance to the progress of
electrification. Among those factors is the scattered location of multi-
tude small villages with low population density and with only basic
need in electricity. The need of electricity in these small villages is
limited to mainly lighting and healthcare. Hence the implementation of
traditional AC power generation for each village is not cost effective.
Add to this, connecting these small villages to the utility grid from a
nearby city will result in electricity transmission losses higher than the
need of the village population. Thus the idea of supplying these villages
in electricity is often abandoned. Instead, small off-grid generation
system, installed only for the purpose of feeding a basic healthcare
center or primary school, is the best solution for this case. This kind of
electricity generation system can be assimilated to a stand-alone mi-
crogrid. Generally, an AC microgrid powered by a diesel group is im-
plemented for this purpose, which can be extended to each house but
the cost of diesel generator is not affordable for these villagers; a system
using renewable energy sources such as PV is more interesting in term
of cost considering the decreasing price of kWh of PV with the time
(“How Solar Panel Cost & Efficiency Have Changed Over Time |
EnergySage, 2018, “Innovations Spur Era of Rapidly Declining Solar
Costs | Solar Tribune, 2018, “One simple chart shows why an energy
revolution is coming — and who is likely to come out on top,” n.d.,
“Solar Panel Prices Continue Falling Quicker Than Expected (2018)).
These small scale renewable sources such as PV generator, fuel cell,
small scale DC wind power and hydropower are very common and easy
to find on the market and generally generate DC voltage. On the other
hand, most of DC appliances run internally on direct current. In other
words, these appliances are generally equipped by an AC-DC converter.
That is the case of multitude appliances incorporating batteries such as
hand phone, portable computer, digital camera, touch pad or without
internal battery like led TV, DVD player, led lighting (Stippich et al.,
2017). Hence adopting small standalone DC microgrids is more com-
petitive than the AC ones when it comes to residential applications. In
fact, not only the DC-AC conversion and then AC-DC is avoided but DC
microgrid presents higher efficiency in conversion compared to the AC
one (Burmester, Rayudu, Seah, & Akinyele, 2017; Fairley, 2012; Justo,

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: sonia.moussa@enit.utm.tn (S. Moussa), manel.jebalibenghorbal@enit.utm.tn (M.J.-B. Ghorbal),
ilhem.slamabelkhodkja@enit.utm.tn (I. Slama-Belkhodja).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2019.101431
Received 30 June 2018; Received in revised form 8 January 2019; Accepted 10 January 2019
Available online 11 January 2019
2210-6707/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
S. Moussa et al.
Nomenclature
LVDC low voltage direct current
ELVDC extra low voltage direct current
DG distributed generator
ESS energy storage system
LRC line regulating converter
PoLC point of load converter
VSC voltage source converter
Mwasilu, Lee, & Jung, 2013; Planas, Andreu, Gárate, de Alegría, &
Ibarra, 2015; Stippich et al., 2017). DC microgrid will also ease the
energy storage for the microgrid with batteries as storage unit.
Although the idea of DC distribution system may not be common in
a household, DC distribution system is not really an innovation since
numerous of its application can be found in data centers (Ott et al.,
2016; Shrestha, Hansen, & Tonkoski, 2016; Tan, Song, Peng, Liu, &
Huang, 2016), telecommunication (Gohara et al., 2014; Prabhala,
Baddipadiga, & Ferdowsi, 2014; Wang, Lu, Yang, Wang, & Xu, 2016),
transport (Shin et al., 2015; Xu, Cheng, & Chan, 2015; Yu, Zeng, & Liu,
2017), USB technologies (Dallard, Forest, & Shabani, 2017; Marathe,
Wei, Ze, Guan, & Pommerenke, 2017; Rezaei et al., 2017), etc. Hence,
DC microgrid can be a solution to the electrification problems of the
rural households encountered in the small villages of Sub-Saharan
Africa.
But DC microgrid for residential application suffers greatly of lack of
standardization which leads to the adoption of different DC bus voltage
levels in the literature, with an encountered voltage varying from 12 V
to 750 V. These DC bus voltage are inspired from existing DC applica-
tions among which we find data centers operating with 380 V–400 V,
telecommunication application with 48 V, transport such as camping
cars with 12–24 V. Most of DC powered homes found in the literature
adopt data center voltage level bus which is the closest level to that AC
powered homes, hence allowing avoiding power losses on the dis-
tribution lines. These applications consider a normal electric con-
sumption for the house. However, taking into account this considera-
tion as for rural households of Sub-Saharan Africa, using a lower DC bus
voltage than 380 V could be more interesting in terms of minimizing
losses while enhancing user safety.
In this paper, authors propose a comparative study of DC bus vol-
tage leading to an appropriate choice of DC bus voltage, from safety,
efficiency and cost saving consideration. The paper is organized as
follows: Section 2 presents a bus voltage state of art in residential DC
microgrid in which the distribution system configuration, existing bus
level application and protection are reviewed. Section 3 deals with the
survey of existing DC home appliances while Section 4 discusses elec-
trical safety in LVDC. Performances analysis comparison are performed
considering cable size, power loss as well as financial analysis is done in
Section 5, before concluding.
2. Bus voltage state of art in residential DC microgrid
Residential DC microgrid includes generally a combination of dis-
tributed generators, energy storage system and local loads connected
through a common DC bus. These distributed sources are linked to the
bus by the means of line regulating converters while the loads are
whether directly connected when their operating voltage matches the
bus voltage or by the means of point of load converter otherwise. As
previously stated in the introduction, several voltage levels can be
found in the literature concerning residential DC microgrid. The voltage
range encountered includes that of ELVDC and LVDC, the former
comprising voltage range lower than 75 V and the latter comprising a
voltage range between 75 V and 1.5 kV (“The Low Voltage Directive
(LVD) - Growth - European Commission (2019)). The same goes for the
2
Sustainable Cities and Society 46 (2019) 101431
distribution topology where unipolar or bipolar distribution system is
indifferently adopted in the existing applications. And according to the
voltage level and distribution topology, protection will differ accord-
ingly. Therefore in this section, we will detail the distribution topolo-
gies found in residential DC microgrid applications, the existing voltage
levels and the protections.
2.1. Distribution system configurations
Two types of distribution system can be encountered in residential
DC microgrid application, namely the unipolar one and bipolar one.
The unipolar distribution system is a distribution system whose
cable is composed by two wires as depicted in Fig. 1: one conductor is
used for current feeding and another for current return. This system
distribution type presents the advantages to have a simple structure, no
asymmetry between the poles and a simpler control of the DC bus.
However its drawbacks are that it offers only a single level voltage for
the loads, the lack of redundancy which leads to the collapse of the
entire system at the slightest default. It also may increase the risk
concerning user safety given the high level of the line-to-ground vol-
tage.
The bipolar distribution system, meanwhile, is composed by the
combination of two unipolar distribution systems with three wires line
as presented in Fig. 2. The advantages of this topology reside in the
alternative to be able to choose between different voltage levels (+Vdc,
-Vdc, 2Vdc) to supply the loads, a higher reliability when one of the line
is subject to a fault, and the reduction of the line-to-ground voltage
level, allowing the distribution system to be safer for the users. But its
inconveniences lie on the uneven power distribution which may occurs
on the two poles of the bus, resulting in an asymmetrical operation.
This asymmetrical operation may cause voltage unbalance, thus dete-
riorating the voltage stability and power quality; which is to be avoided
by the implementation of a more complicated bus control strategy by
enhancing the common mode voltage regulation (Gu, Li, & He, 2016).
Both topologies are encountered either in applications with single
bus or multi-bus (Rodriguez-Diaz, Vasquez, & Guerrero, 2016). Whe-
ther in the case of one or the other type of distribution system, several
demonstrators have been found in the literature. As example,
(Augustine, Mishra, & Lakshminarasamma, 2015; Golshannavaz &
Mortezapour, 2018; Sasidharan & Singh, 2017)use unipolar distribution
system while (Chew, Tseng, & Nguyen, 2015; Gu et al., 2016; Kakigano,
Miura, & Ise, 2010) use the bipolar one.
2.2. Existing bus level application
Among the various voltage levels encountered in residential appli-
cation in the literature, we distinguish the residential DC distribution
Fig. 1. Unipolar distribution system.
S. Moussa et al.
Fig. 2. Bipolar distribution system.
systems inspired from communication power supplies, using a rated
voltage of 48 V. For instance, an implementation of a 48 V DC nanogrid,
in which power and control architecture are investigated, has been
carried out in (Joseph, Ashok, & Dhanesh, 2017). In (Taufik &
Muscarella, 2016), authors presents the development of a 48 V DC
house prototypes and their construction in three different locations, the
first prototype in the US, the second in Indonesia and the third in the
Philippines; the objective of these prototypes being to give access to
electricity to non-electrified rural area. Another application of 48 V DC
house in found in (Nag, Mandal, & Mishra, 2017), where authors pro-
pose the deployment of solar photovoltaic converter system suitable for
rural electrification on an experimental 48 V DC system.
There are also residential applications based on the use of voltage
levels adopted for transportation power systems such as in the camping
car and electric traction. Generally, the applications inspired from
camping car are using a rated voltage of either 12 V or 24 V and 750 V
from electric traction.
An implementation of a ± 750 V LVDC distribution system for a
field test platform in actual distribution network has been performed in
Finland and presented in (Kaipia et al., 2017). Authors in (Díaz et al.,
2015) plan to establish a living lab with a 750 V DC bus, designed for
industrial application and commercial buildings; the living lab is to be
implanted in North China Electric Power University. Authors in (Kim,
Cho, Kim, Cho, & Kim, 2017) equally plot to construct an LVDC dis-
tribution system in an island named Geochado, in South Korea; the
demonstrator is expected to operate with existing AC network. And
among the proposed voltage of future two-level LVDC distribution
grids, authors in (Rodriguez-Diaz et al., 2016), propose a bipolar ±
750 V distribution system, from which an ± 375 V bipolar line can be
extracted, in order to maximize efficiency and to remain within the
limit of LVDC system fixed by the IEC600038 standard. These voltages
are considered to be suitable for both high and medium power rating
element encountered in building.
Concerning residential application operating on 24 V DC bus, a
design of a 250 W DC solar nanogrid with 24 V DC distribution bus is
done and simulated in order to reach a stable operation control in
(Manavalan, Tania, Patra, Poongothai, & Prema, 2017), while (Sanal,
Mohan, Sindhu, & Kottayil, 2017) consider a standalone microgrid with
a 24 V DC bus to investigate different energy managements.
3
Sustainable Cities and Society 46 (2019) 101431
Another voltage level commonly investigated in the literature for
DC residential applications is the voltage level used for the data centers
with 380 V or 400 V. For example, a 380 V DC test system, designed to
study the development of a self-sustained DC microgrid, has been
constructed in Obihiro, Hokkaido, Japan (Noritake et al., 2015); and it
was concluded that the system allowed not only to reduce the en-
vironment load while improving energy efficiency but also to form an
independent community energy system. Authors in (Lin, Xue, Song,
Song, & Liu, 2016) has implemented a platform for an experimentation
and research on DC microgrid with a bus voltage level of 380 V with the
aim of solving DC microgrid problems considering a real system. The
DC microgrid platform includes distributed generators composed by PV
generator and wind turbine, an energy storage system composed by
lithium battery pack and supercapacitor, and LED lights and con-
trollable electric loads acting as loads; and it has been showed that the
converter performances are well achieved and the ability to control the
power distribution between each unit connected to the bus. For their
part, authors in (Ryu, Kim, Baek, Kim, & Jung, 2015) proposed a test
bed of 380 V DC distribution system in which DC home appliance are
considered, and that use isolated power converters in order to assess the
effectiveness of the power interface of the DC bus. And it practical
experiments of load variation and bidirectional power flow verified the
test bed system performances. Authors in (Zhang, Lee, & Huang, 2014),
meanwhile, introduced a 380 V DC emulator test bed of 10 kW, using a
droop control method on the source converters. Considering residential
load profile, distributed renewable energy source profile and electricity
schedules rate within 24 h, discussions are made on system energy
management and control.
2.3. Protections
Like AC distribution system, the DC one is also subject to fault oc-
currence. Two type of faults can occur in a DC microgrid: line-to-line
fault (LL) and line-to-ground fault (LG) (Mohammadi, Ajaei, & Stevens,
2018; Zhang, Tai, Huang, Liu, & Wang, 2018).The first fault type arises
when a short circuit is observed between two conductive lines whereas
the second corresponds to a short-circuit arising between a conductive
line and the ground. Any terminal units such as DC-DC converters,
loads, grid connected voltage source converters or any other points of
the microgrid such as DC buses, distribution lines can be subject to fault
occurrence.
An illustration of these faults happening downstream of a converter
in the case of bipolar distribution topology is presented in Fig. 3.
Noticeable amount of work researches has been conducted on DC
microgrid protection especially considering fault occurrence on DC
microgrid where the source side converter is a voltage source converter
(VSC) connecting the grid source to the DC bus (Hooshyar & Iravani,
2017; Shuai, Fang, Ning, & Shen, 2018; Zhang et al., 2018). Studies
considering other type of converter such as DC-DC converter interfacing
a renewable distributed generator such as PV generator are difficult to
find.
Considering a DC fault occurring on a DC microgrid whose con-
verter is a VSC, a line-to-line fault manifests itself in 3 stages (Zhang
et al., 2018). The first stage corresponds to the rapid discharge of
converter capacitor which causes the current fault reaching its peak in a
few milliseconds and lasts until the total discharge of the capacitor.
Then begin the second stage during which the free-wheel diodes are
Fig. 3. Type of fault.
S. Moussa et al. Sustainable Cities and Society 46 (2019) 101431

conducting due to the cable current. Since the current through the
diodes is abrupt, they would be rapidly damaged, so the DC side of the
fault current and the AC side current will have almost the same mag-
nitude to some degree. As result, the AC source will feed the fault point,
which constitutes the third stage. The analysis of line-to-ground fault
shows similar features to the line-to-line fault but without the second
stage (Zhang et al., 2018).
In regards to protection devices, the commercially available ones
are fuses and circuit breakers. It is well known that the interruption of
current in DC distribution give birth to an arc that is not easy to ex-
tinguish due to the absence of zero crossing current like in AC. This
makes DC distribution system implementation quite challenging.
Fuses are the most traditional protection devices; they are chosen
according to the rated current and operate by melting down when the
limit current is reached. Hence, depending on the application, i.e. time
constraint required for the application and fault time current constant,
the fuse have to be carefully chosen. But generally, they cannot meet
the time requirement needed in LVDC distribution system.
Circuit breakers, on the other hand, are the most suitable devices for
DC distribution protection, since they can satisfy the time constraint
requirements. The most common breaker used in DC system is the
molded case circuit breaker (MCCB) but its limitation resides in terms
of the possible incapacity of its current force to open the contact in
certain case due to the high magnitude of the discharge current of the
converter capacitor. Thus, to overcome this limitation, protection de-
vices based on power electronics such as solid state circuit breaker
(SSCB) and hybrid circuit breaker are developed. Controllable semi-
conductors (IGBT, IGCT, IEGT, GTO,…) constitute the core of these
devices. They may present more power losses but their use allows
meeting the strict time requirement.
Considering protection strategy based on circuit breaker, authors in
(Emhemed & Burt, 2014) set up a scheme that takes advantages of local
measurement and communication inherent to smart-grid and the ex-
cellent controllability of SSCB to provide a fast fault detection and to
realize a rapid restoration with a fault limitation while authors in (Sato,
Tanaka, Fukui, Yamasaki, & Ohashi, 2014) fabricated a SiC-SIT circuit
breaker prototype, whose gate voltage control scheme can reduce the
transient overvoltage and the peak during the interruption process.
Fault protection and safety challenges in LVDC distribution system led
authors in (Emhemed, Fong, Fletcher, & Burt, 2017) to investigate a
review of key challenges of protections and to present experimental
results of advanced protections strategies designed to enable LVDC
distribution system for utility grid. Although SSCB are largely adopted
as good protection devices for LVDC distribution system (Emhemed &
Burt, 2014; Emhemed et al., 2017; Liu, Liu, Zha, Yang, & Feng, 2017;
Shen, Sabui, Miao, & Shuai, 2015), due to its quick and effective ability
to isolate faulted area, its safety and reliability is dependent on the
overvoltage suppression ability of its snubber and its fault current
withstanding. Hence, authors in (Liu et al., 2017) propose a snubber
design method for SSCB, capable of suppressing the overvoltage at bus
fault interruption and they conduct an experiment on a ± 200 V DC
system in order to choose an appropriate snubber. In regards to the
dependence of the protection device design to the short circuit rating
considering the network configuration, authors in (Virdag, Hager, &
Doncker, 2017) performed a simulation of fault characteristic con-
sidering different LVDC configurations, taking a dual active bridge DC-
DC converter as interface between renewable energy sources and the
DC bus. The potential of decreasing the protection device short-circuit
rating, caused by the current limitation of the DC-DC converter, com-
pared to the one in low voltage alternative current grids has been show.
Another type of trend circuit breaker investigated for LVDC protections
is the hybrid DC circuit breaker (Chen et al., 2018; Yasuoka, Tsuboi,
Hayakawa, & Takeuchi, 2018). In (Chen et al., 2018), an analysis and
comparison of device features, i.e. maximum turn-off current, conduc-
tion ability, on-state voltage and power semiconductor robustness, are
performed. The result showed the suitability of IGCT for natural com-
mutation for low voltage and low current hybrid circuit breaker and the
suitability of IGCT and IEGT for high current interruption, the best
device being the IEGT though interference effect has to be taken into
account. Even if the time duration of arc, when using hybrid circuit
breaker, is lower compared to the use of classical circuit breaker,
contact erosion of the circuit breaker subsists. That is why authors in
(Yasuoka et al., 2018) proposed to use a molten metal bridges to obtain
an arcless commutation at the opening stage of the contact, the mag-
nitude of the molten bridge voltage being just enough to turn on the
semiconductor device under specific conditions.
A synthesis of existing bus level for residential application en-
countered in literature, with their advantages and inconveniences is
presented in Table 1.
3. Survey of existing DC home appliances
Most of DC end user appliances found on the market are intended
for applications dedicated for yachting, camping car and off-grid solar
photovoltaic. These appliances generally operate on 12 V or 24 V. But
with the development of standard such as IEEE, the 2030.10-Standard
for DC Microgrids for Rural and Remote Electricity Access Applications
(“IEEE SA, 2018), DC loads running on 48 V have equally made their
apparition on the market.
So, for the time being, most of commercialized DC home appliances
encountered on the market operate whether on 12 V, 24 V or 48 V.
Some of these loads are presented in Table 2, with their power range

Table 1
Comparison of existing bus level for residential application.
Voltage level Application domain in Advantages Inconveniences
residential

12 V Single room, small house
24 V Off-grid remote home
48 V off-grid remote home
380-400 V Grid connected residence,
commercial building
1500 V ( ± 750 V) Industrial application,
commercial building
- Commercialized home appliances available
- Safe for user
- Emerge Alliance standard for occupied space
- Commercialized home appliances available
- Only need basic protection
- IEEE standard for DC microgrids for rural and remote
electricity access applications
- Commercialized home appliances available
- Only need basic protection
- Emerge alliance for building / Standard in datacenter
- Voltage near 230 VAC (possibility of adapting AC load
to DC load with minor modification)
- Suitable for high load application
- Suitable for high load application
- Destined to low power load applications
- High losses for high power application
- Destined to low power load applications
- High losses for high power application
- Destined to low power load applications
- Need for step down converter to interface with existing
commercialized home appliances
- Protection mandatory
- Need ffor step down converter to interface with existing
commercialized home appliances
- Protection mandatory

4
S. Moussa et al. Sustainable Cities and Society 46 (2019) 101431

Table 2 appliances and isolated bidirectional converter as line regulating con-

Some available commercialised DC load. verters. As result, feasibility of DC distribution system for small scale
Load Power range [W] Rated voltage [V] residential buildings is proved.

12 24 48
4. Electrical safety in LVDC
Led lamp 3-40 ✓ ✓ ✓
Fan 2.7-24 ✓ ✓ ✓ Human body can let current flow through itself when it comes in
Air conditioner 816 ✓ ✓
contact to electric conductors according to its resistance. Depending on
Freezer 40-100 ✓ ✓ ✓
Refrigerator 40-200 ✓ ✓ ✓ the current waveform, its amount, its pathway through the body and
kettle 85-350-400 ✓ ✓ the shock duration, the effect can differ from slight prickling to elec-
microwave 660 ✓ trical hazard. Fig. 4 shows the conventional time/current zones of ef-
Coffee maker 156-170 ✓ ✓ fects of DC currents on persons for a longitudinal upward current path
Computer 16-27 ✓ ✓
Computer server 300 ✓
(Schneider Electric, 2012).
TV 5.5-24 ✓ ✓ ✓ These curves are defined by the standard IEC 60479-1 and give the
Satellite receiver 3.1-8.8 ✓ different limits of direct current effects on human body.
Radio 8 ✓ The first zone, DC-1 corresponds to physiological effects of slight
Washing machine 70 ✓ ✓
prickling sensation while the second, DC-2 give rise to involuntary
Cloth dryer 40-50 ✓ ✓
Iron 150 ✓ ✓ muscular contractions but generally without harmful electrical phy-
Hair dryer 180-400 ✓ siological effects. DC-3 zone provokes strong involuntary muscular re-
actions and reversible disturbance or susceptible occurrence of forma-
tion and conduction of impulses in the heart that increase with the
and operating voltage (CYGNI, 2018; “Dc Electrical Appliances, 2018”; current amplitude and time but usually, no organic damage is to be
Garbesi, 2012; Olk & Mundt, 2018). expected. Finally DC-4 zone implies possible occurrence of patho-phy-
But on the other hand, considering a DC bus level voltage inspired siological effect such as cardiac arrest, breathing arrest and burns or
from data centers in residential application, some research focused their other cellular damage. The probability of ventricular fibrillation in-
target on adapting the existing AC loads to operate in DC by modifying crease with the current magnitude: in DC-4.1 zone, the probability of
their supply adapter circuitry. Among these research papers, (Nilsson & ventricular fibrillation increase up to about 5%, 50% in DC-4.2 zone
Sannino, 2004; Salomonsson & Sannino, 2007) treat the modelling of and beyond 50% in DC-4.3 zone.
loads to study DC system. In these papers, authors test the possibility of So when a person is exposed to DC electrical current, it can cause
several existing AC home appliances to run in DC and take measure- muscle response at first contact and when realizing, as well as heart
ments in order to derive their steady-state and transient behaviors; their fatigue and failure at high enough current levels. At low current, DC
DC load model is then obtained accordingly. Authors in (Rodriguez- current does not induce muscle and higher effects but a prolonged ex-
Diaz, Vasquez, & Guerrero, 2017) have presented the potential energy posure can be fatal because of cumulative internal tissue burning.
savings of DC distribution systems for residential applications con- Since the current amount passing through the body is dependent on
sidering a Danish household as a case study. They have considered DC the voltage, current frequency, circuit characteristics, body’s im-
compatible loads in order to compare the energy saving from the uti- pedance and environmental condition that affect the body’s impedance,
lization of AC grid distribution system compared to a 380 V DC dis- the classification of hazard class is dependent as well of the operating
tribution system. Another study of home appliances operating in 220 V voltage and the power of the installation. The hazard classification in
DC, obtained from existing 220 V AC loads without or with minor DC current is given in Fig. 5 and a summary giving the threshold hazard
modification, is also presented in (Makarabbi, Gavade, Panguloori, & is presented in Table 3 (Schneider Electric, 2012).
Mishra, 2014), and it has been concluded that adopting 220 V DC After determining the hazard class to which the installation belongs,
system with DC loads offers more efficiency than with an AC system one adequate protection must be set up.
when renewable energy source are used. There is equally the paper
dealing in the study on DC distribution system for small scale re-
5. Performance comparison
sidential buildings (Baek, Kim, Ryu, Kim, & Kim, 2015), where a 380 V
DC distribution system test bed is implemented with modified DC home
For a performance comparison, we will consider a unipolar

Fig. 4. Conventional time/current zones of effects of DC currents on persons for a longitudinal upward current path (hand to feet) (Schneider Electric, 2012).

5
S. Moussa et al. Sustainable Cities and Society 46 (2019) 101431

Fig. 5. Classification matrix hazard class 2.x, DC (Schneider

Electric, 2012).
The corresponding legend is given below:
: Do not represent hazards classes but decision points;
: No hazard and no engineering or administrative controls
needed;
: Little to no hazards, few, or no engineering or administrative
controls needed;
: Injury or death could occur by close proximity or contact;
hazard oftenly a shock or contact burn. Necessity of engineering
controls for operation (such as listing or equipment approval), and
administrative controls for electrical work;
: Injury or death could occur by proximity or contact; often the
hazard is shock, contact burn, or arc-flash burn. Necessity of en-
gineering controls for operation (such as listing or equipment
approval), and administrative controls for electrical work;
: Highest level of risk. Necessity of significant engineering and administrative controls to manage the hazard.

Table 3 K3 to ambient temperature, Kn correction factor of neutral loaded and

Threshold hazard (Schneider Electric, 2012). Ks symmetrical correction factor as given in (1).
Hazard type Threshold Hazard class 3
K = KnKs ∏ Ki
Shock hazard ≥100 V and ≥40 mA 2.2c, 2.2d, 2.3, 2.4 i=1 (1)
Flash hazard ≥100 V and ≥500A 2.4
Thermal contact burn hazard > 100 Vand > 1000 W 2.2a, 2.2b In our application, unenclosed multicore cables and an ambient
temperature of 40 °C are chosen, with a breaker as protection device.
Thus the selection letter is C. The correction factors are: K1 = 0.95,
distribution system as illustrated in Fig. 6. This system corresponds to a K2 = 0.8, K3 = 0.87, Kn = 0.84, Ks = 1, which gives K = 0.55.
laboratory system present in our lab and is constituted by a PV gen- The design current Ib is then calculated by the following expression:
erator of 340 Wp, two wind turbine that supply 400 W each one at a
P
wind speed of 5.6 m/s coupled with two batteries of 170 Ah as energy Ib =
V (2)
storage system.
A comparison of DC bus voltage characteristics varying from 12 V to With P: rated power of the application, V: DC bus voltage
100 V for a power rated of 1140 W is conducted in this section. The Then the normalized current In is selected in compliance to the
application is destined for non-electrified rural house such as en- current rating of the overcurrent protection device. The choice corre-
countered in certain part of Africa. In (Taufik & Muscarella, 2016), the sponds to the normalized current value that is directly greater to the
loads are estimated to a total of approximately 400 to 500 W, the design current.
purpose being to initiate people from rural areas to use electricity and Hence the admissible current Iz’ carried by the conductor is obtained
to meet their demand in electricity as much as they can afford. Hence, according to the following expression:
in our case, a total load demand of 1140 W is reasonable.
In
But before that, the cable cross-section corresponding to each DC Iz′ =
K (3)
voltage level should be determined.
The cross-section is finally selected from an appropriate table taking
5.1. Cable cross-section determination into account the admissible current (Schneider Electric, 2012).

As per recommendation of the NF C 15–100 standard, in order to 5.2. Power losses and admissible voltage drop
ensure an installation safety, several necessary conditions must be sa-
tisfied by cable cross-section and protection device selection. A sum- Despite the fact that electrical distribution cable is chosen so as to
mary of the determination of these latter are presented in Fig. 7, the have low impedance, this latter is not zero in reality. Once electric
objective being reached after 3 steps. current passes through the cable, it gives place to a voltage drop that
The first step consists in the determination of the design current Ib, must be taken into consideration during the distribution system design,
then the deduction of normalized current In for the protection device,
and finally the determination of capacity carrying current Iz to be taken
into account by the protection. The second step consists in determining
the correction factor K which depends on the installation conditions
such as installation method, ambient temperature, etc and then se-
lecting the suitable cross-section in accordance to the correction factor
and normalized current. Finally, the third step is dedicated to the ver-
ification of the maximum voltage drop, thermal cable constraint in the
case of short-circuit, and maximum cable length. The selection of the
cable cross-section satisfying all the conditions is then performed, but
an economic selection criterion can also be added to the previous cri-
teria.
Depending on the installation conditions and used conductor, one
can determine the reference method of installation as well as the
coefficient K that typifies the influence of installation conditions. The
coefficient K is obtained by multiplying the correction factor K1 relative
to the installation method, by K2 relative to mutual influence of circuit, Fig. 6. Microgrid under study.

6
S. Moussa et al. Sustainable Cities and Society 46 (2019) 101431

Fig. 7. Flowchart of cable cross section and protection device determination (PRÉVÉ & JEANNOT, 1997).

with the aim to ensure a correct functioning of the appliances. The lack And the percentage of voltage drop per unit length is:
of standard destined to LVDC distribution for residential application
100Ib r
lead us to draw guideline for NF C 15–100 that fixes the voltage drop Δv% =
V (8)
between the low voltage installation feeder and any point of load to not
exceed 3% for lighting and 5% for the other devices (PRÉVÉ & The maximum cable length is given by:
JEANNOT, 1997).
Considering a distribution line as depicted in Fig. 8, the voltage drop V
L = Δv%
is the voltage across the cable resistance Rc, Vi being the voltage at the 100Ib r (9)
beginning of the line, V the voltage at the end, P the load power and Lc
A comparison of the voltage level less than or equal to 100 V is
the cable inductance.
confined in Table 4, regarding their cross-section, their resistance, their
The voltage across the cable is expressed by:
transmission loss (voltage drop and power loss), their admissible cable
Vc = Ib R c (4) length, taking the system presented in Fig. 6 as studied system. For the
calculation of the cable resistance, we assume that the cable is made of
The power loss through the cable is:
copper. And histograms illustrating the cable cross-section, the voltage
Pc = Ib2 R c (5) drop, the power loss and the maximum cable length are presented re-
spectively in Figs. 9–12.
Hence, the determination of the transmission loss passes by the
determination of the cable resistance, whose expression calculated per
unit length, is given by:
ρl
r=
s (6)

With ρ: resistivity, s: cross-section area, l = 1 m: cable length

The power loss per unit length is thus:

Pc = Ib2 r (7) Fig. 8. DC distribution line.

7
S. Moussa et al. Sustainable Cities and Society 46 (2019) 101431

Table 4
Cross-section determination for different dc bus values.
Voltage [V] 12 24 48 60 100

Design current Ib [A] 95 47.5 23.7 19 11.4

Normalized current In [A] 125 63 25 20 16
Admissible current Iz’ [A] 225 113 45 36 28
Cable cross-section [mm²] 120 35 10 6 4
Resistance per unit length [mΩ/m] 0.28 0.98 3.45 5.75 8.62
Voltage drop per unit length [%/m] 0.23 0.19 0.17 0.18 0.10
Power losses [W/m] 2.59 2.22 1.95 2.07 1.12
Maximum cable length for ΔV = 5% [m] 21.9 25.6 29.3 27.5 50.8
Maximum cable length for ΔV = 3% [m] 13.2 15.4 17.6 16.5 30.5 s

Fig. 12. Maximum cable length.

loss are lesser compared to the ones of 60 V DC. It is explained by the

small difference in cable cross section, and the small difference in their
design current. That is why the voltage drop, obtained by the multi-
plication of the resistance by the design current, is lower for the 48 V
DC compared to the 60 V DC. Add to this, the power loss being a linear
function of the cable resistance and a parabolic function of the current
design, thus the 48 V DC bus presents lesser power loss than the 60 V
DC. Contrariwise, as the DC bus voltage increase, the maximum cable
length increase equally, except for the 60 V DC for the same reason
previously stated.
Another factor to be taken into account in the loss encountered in a
Fig. 9. Cable cross section. distribution system is the type of distributor, the one used for re-
sidential application being the distributor fed at one end as depicted in
Fig. 13.
For this kind of distributor, the more the distribution section is away
from the feeder point, the more its current decrease. In the case of the
example illustrated in Fig. 13, section DE carries the lesser current
while section AB carries the higher, compared to the other sections. The
same goes for the voltage across the load: even if the loads are con-
nected in parallel, due to the voltage drop in the distributor sections,
the voltage away from the feeding point goes on decreasing. And in the
case of fault occurrence, the overall distributor will have to be dis-
connected from the supply.
Considering the example of Fig. 13, the total voltage drop in the
system is given by:

ΔVt = r1 (I1 + I2 + I3 + I4 ) + r2 (I2 + I3 + I4 ) + r3 (I3 + I4 ) + r4 I4 (10)

Fig. 10. Voltage drop.
The voltage with which the first load is fed is:

VB = VA − r1 (I1 + I2 + I3 + I4 ) (11)

And the voltage with which the last load is fed is given by:

VE = VA − r1 (I1 + I2 + I3 + I4 ) − r2 (I2 + I3 + I4 ) − r3 (I3 + I4 ) − r4 I4

= VA − ΔVt (12)

An illustration of the potential variation at each load node of the

Fig. 11. Power loss.
As illustrated in Fig. 9, the cross section of the cable goes on de-
creasing with the increase of the voltage bus. The 12 V DC bus presents
the worst voltage drop per unit length and power loss while the 100 V
DC presents the best performances. The 48 V DC bus presents a higher
cross section than the 60 V DC one, however its voltage drop and power
system presented in Fig. 13 is presented in Fig. 14, assuming the length
of section AB = 5 m, section BC = 6 m, section CD = 4 m and section
DE = 5 m. For the sake of comparison between the DC bus voltage le-
vels, we will consider a load of 15 W at node A, 100 W at node B, 80 W
at node C and 30 W at node E. As expected, the potential in the furthest
node from the feeder present the lowest potential. The 100 V DC bus
presents the least change in potential at each node, and then comes the
48 V DC, the 60 V DC, the and finally the 12 V DC.
5.3. Financial analysis
The mains impacting factors when it comes to choose the bus vol-
tage level are the cables, protection, loads and converter costs.

8
S. Moussa et al.
5.3.1. Cable cost
The cable cost depends on its cross-section and total length. So in
order to estimate the cable length needed, we will consider a home with
a floor surface area of approximately 50m² as presented in Fig.15.
This architectural plan will be used to identify all the items that
require an electrical connection in each room such as the number of
light points and outlets as presented in Figs. 16 and 17 respectively.
We assume that the house will operate with minimalist loads
namely lighting loads, fan, refrigerator, TV, radio, telephone charger
and portable computer. As presented in Table 2 these loads exist in a
power range lower than 500 W. Hence for the house electrical wiring,
two different cable sizes are taken into account: a cable size for loads
with a power lower than 500 W and another for loads consuming a
higher power. These latter are mainly encountered in kitchen appli-
ances, which leads to the use of cable with a larger cross-section to wire
the kitchen outlets. Tables 5 and 6 give respectively the sizing and
admissible cable length for the different DC bus voltage levels con-
sidering load power consumption under 500 W and between 500 W and
1000 W.
Having the maximum cable length provided for lighting have to not
exceed a voltage drop of 3% and 5% for the other purposes, a com-
parison of estimated cable length related to the proposed architectural
plan and the maximum admissible cable length for each bus voltage
level is then presented in Table 7. The estimation of the needed cable
length for the proposed house consider a simple wiring without two
way switches or remote control switches. It can be already concluded
from Table 7 that using a bus voltage level of 12 V is not feasible for the
proposed house since the estimated cable needed is longer than the
admissible cable length. The 24 V system wiring remains acceptable by
compromising on the location of the light in the living room.
Apart from the kitchen outlet wire, the other wire cross-sections are
taken as for load consuming a power lower than 500 W. Thus the total
length of the cable with a lower cross-section corresponds to the sum of
the cable length of these latter and is worth 93 m, while the cable with a
higher cross-section corresponds to the kitchen outlet wire and is worth
11 m. The cable cost for the different voltage bus is presented in Table 8
and as one can see, the cable cost decrease with the increase of the bus
voltage level.
Fig. 14. Potential variation at each load node.
9
Sustainable Cities and Society 46 (2019) 101431
Fig. 13. Distributor fed at one end.
5.3.2. Protection cost
By taking inspiration from NFC 15–100 standards, the number of
light point per circuit is 8. Since we have a total of 6 lamps in our case,
then there will be only one circuit for the light point. One circuit is
dedicated to the bedrooms and bathroom’s outlets, another to living
room’s outlet while another to the kitchen’s outlets. The protection will
be done through circuit breaker, the breaking capacity of device pro-
tection being higher than the short circuit current of the installation.
This short circuit current is given by:
Vdc
Icc =
Rdc (13)
Where Vdc is the DC bus voltage and Rdc the cable resistance calculated
by multiplying the corresponding resistance per unit length by the cable
length. The equation used in (13) allows the protection of the home
appliances downstream the bus. Hence this short circuit current is
calculated assuming that the fault occurs at the level of the cables in
green in Fig. 6.
However, fault current occurring between a converter and the bus
depends on the converter topology and its control. Indeed, as men-
tioned in (Meghwani, Chakrabarti, Srivastava, & Anand, 2017), fault
current level can be limited with a converter having an output current
regulation capability. Moreover, the power electronic converter can
participate in fault protection scheme as it has been implemented in
(Cairoli, Kondratiev, & Dougal, 2013), by coordinating its action to the
one of the grid segmenting switch.
For each defined circuit above, the short circuit current corre-
sponding to each DC bus voltage, and according to each circuit, is given
in Table 9.
Having the short-circuit current and the current assigned to the
protection devices, Table 10 gives the cost of the protection devices
according to each voltage bus level. Proposed circuit breakers have
been chosen for their lowest cost and market availability.
5.3.3. Converter costs
In regards to the converter cost, line regulating converters and point
of load converter are to be distinguished. For our application study, the
PV generator presents an optimum operating voltage of 35.6 V and an
S. Moussa et al. Sustainable Cities and Society 46 (2019) 101431

Fig. 15. Architectural plan of the home case study.

Table 6
Cross-section determination for load power ∈[500 W,1000 W] for different dc
bus values.
Voltage [V] 12 24 48 60 100

Design current Ib [A] 83.33 41.67 20.83 16.67 10

Normalized current In [A] 100 50 25 20 16
Admissible current Iz’ [A] 180.05 90.02 45.01 36 28.81
Cable cross-section [mm²] 70 25 10 6 4
Resistance per unit length [mΩ/m] 0.49 1.38 3.45 5.7 8.62
Fig. 16. Provisional lighting diagram. Voltage drop per unit length [%/m] 0.34 0.24 0.15 0.16 0.09
Power losses [W/m] 3.42 2.39 1.50 1.60 0.86
Maximum cable length for ΔV = 5% 14.62 20.88 33.41 31.32 58.00
[m]
Maximum cable length for ΔV = 3% 8.77 12.53 20.05 18.79 34.80
[m]

optimum operating current of 9.6 A with a peak power of 340Wp.

Hence, the line regulating converter interfacing the PV generator will
be a buck converter for a 12 V and 24 V bus voltage level while it will be
a boost converter for the 48 V, 60 V and 100 V. The wind turbine has an
Fig. 17. Provisional socket diagram. integrated AC-DC converter providing an output voltage of whether
12 V DC or 24 V DC, with a rated power of 400 W. Thus, boost converter
are needed as line regulating converter for a choice of 48 V, 60 V and
Table 5
100 V bus voltage level. Likewise, for the energy storage system, we
Cross-section determination for load power ≤500 W for different dc bus values.
have two batteries of 12 V each connected in series; thus the interfacing
Voltage [V] 12 24 48 60 100 converter will be a buck-boost since it has to store or restitute the en-
ergy. Table 11 presents the price and the reference of the converter
Design current Ib [A] 41.67 20.83 10.42 8.33 5
Normalized current In [A] 50 25 16 10 6 available on the market (“Convertisseurs DC/ DC Mean Well, 2018). For
Admissible current Iz’ [A] 90.02 45.01 28.81 18 10.8 the non-existing commercialized converters in Table 11, their price will
Cable cross-section [mm²] 25 10 4 2.5 1.5 be set by price increase.
Resistance per unit length [mΩ/m] 1.38 3.45 8.62 13.8 23 As for the point of load converter, since commercialized loads exist
Voltage drop per unit length [%/m] 0.48 0.3 0.19 0.19 0.11
Power losses [W/m] 2.39 1.5 0.94 0.96 0.57
in 12 V, 24 V and 48 V version, these voltage levels do not need an
Maximum cable length for ΔV = 5% 10.44 16.7 26.73 26.10 43.50 interfacing converter while the 60 V and 100 V need a buck converter,
[m] the price and the reference of the converter are presented in Table 12.
Maximum cable length for ΔV = 3% 6.26 10.02 16.04 15.66 26.10 Besides, depending on the place where the point of load converter will
[m]
be installed, and the chosen operating voltage of the load, the wiring
system related to the 60 V and 100 V will change. In our case for in-
stance, we assume that the PoLC will output a 24 V voltage since most

10
S. Moussa et al. Sustainable Cities and Society 46 (2019) 101431

Table 7
Comparison of estimated cable length and admissible cable lenght.
Estimated cable 12 V admissible cable 24 V admissible cable 48 V admissible cable 60 V admissible cable 100 V admissible cable
length [m] length [m] length [m] length [m] length [m] length [m]

Living room lighting 11 6.26 10.02 16.04 15.66 26.10

Room 1 lighting 8 6.26 10.02 16.04 15.66 26.10
Room 2 lighting 9 6.26 10.02 16.04 15.66 26.10
Bathroom 8 6.26 10.02 16.04 15.66 26.10
Kitchen 8 6.26 10.02 16.04 15.66 26.10
Corridor 6 6.26 10.02 16.04 15.66 26.10
Living room outlets 11 10.44 16.07 26.73 26.10 43.50
Room 1 outlets 11 10.44 16.07 26.73 26.10 43.50
Room 2 outlets 14 10.44 16.07 26.73 26.10 43.50
Bathroom outlet 7 10.44 16.07 26.73 26.10 43.50
Kitchen outlets 11 14.62 20.88 33.41 31.32 58.00

Table 8
Cable cost for different dc bus values.
Voltage [V] 12 24 48 60 100

Unit price of lower cross-section cable [€/m] 8.22 3.38 1.47 0.98 0.64
Unit price of higher cross-section cable [€/m] 764.46 314.34 136.71 91.14 59.52
Price of lower cross-section cable [€] 24.31 8.22 3.38 2.24 1.47
Price of higher cross-section cable [€] 267.41 90.42 37.18 24.64 16.17
Cable total price [€] 1031.87 404.76 173.89 115.78 75.69

Table 9
Short circuit current of the installation.
Voltage [V] 12 24 48 60 100

Icc for light point circuit [A] 174.00 139.20 111.36 87.00 87.00
Icc for bedrooms and bathroom outlets circuit [A] 271.88 217.50 174.00 135.94 135.94
Icc for living room outlets circuit [A] 790.63 632.74 506.19 395.46 395.46
Icc for kitchen outlets circuit [A] 2214.59 1581.85 1265.48 949.11 1054.57
Icc for all circuit [A] 3451.41 2571.30 2057.04 1567.52 1672.97

Table 10
Protection device cost.
Voltage [V] 12 24 48 60 100

Light point circuit breaker Designation A9F76150 A9F76125 A9F75116 A9F75110 A9F75106
Price [€] 77,17 51,92 36,61 36,53 44,68
Bedroom outlet circuit breaker Designation A9F76150 A9F76125 A9F75116 A9F75110 A9F75106
Price [€] 77,17 51,92 36,61 36,53 44,68
Living room outlet circuit breaker Designation A9F76150 A9F76125 A9F75116 A9F75110 A9F75106
Price [€] 77,17 51,92 36,61 36,53 44,68
Kitchen outlet circuit breaker Designation A9N18346 A9F76150 A9F76125 A9F76120 A9F75116
Price [€] 320,51 77,17 51,92 49,46 36,61
Main circuit breaker Designation A9N18347 A9F76163 A9F76125 A9F76120 A9F75116
Price [€] 416,52 86,75 51,92 49,46 36,61
Total price [€] 968,54 319,68 213,67 208,51 207,26

of the existing appliances runs on this voltage and 24 V system wiring the market, using these voltage levels lead to use a PoLC and another
presents less power losses and less cost compared to the 12 V one. As- wiring system which increase the cost of the installation.
suming the PoLC is located before the distribution board, the house
wiring and protection adopted will be the 24 V one for the 60 V and
6. Conclusion
100 V dc bus voltage level.
The total cost of the installation, considering the dc bus voltage
The remoteness of the small rural villages from the main utility grid
level is confined in Table 13. Assuming that the DC appliances used will
and their low electricity demand led them to not have access to elec-
be the one operating on 24 V, the wiring system and protection cost of
tricity. With the continuous decline in price of the renewable energy,
the 60 V and 100 V will be the one wired with 24 V.
the implementation of DC nanogrids can be a viable solution to the
Table 13 shows that the most expensive installation corresponds to
problem, considering their higher efficiency compared to the AC ones.
the one using the 12 V bus voltage while the most economical bus
However, the lack on the standardization in DC microgrid for re-
voltage level for our case study is the 48 V. Under the assumption that
sidential application have given rise to panoply of different voltage
home appliances exist in version running on 60 V and 100 V, the cost of
levels including the domain from ELVD to LVDC, the 380 DC being the
the installation will decrease with the increase of bus voltage level.
most encountered bus voltage level. Thus considering a low power
However, since loads operating in 60 V and 100 V are not available on
consumption home, the use of this latter may not be suitable. So this

11
S. Moussa et al. Sustainable Cities and Society 46 (2019) 101431

paper presents a guideline helping to choose an appropriate voltage for

low power consumption standalone residential DC nanogrid. A 1140 W

Boost (not yet commercialized) 115€

Buck-boost (not yet commercialized)
Boost (not yet commercialized) 80€
100 V
DC distribution system has been considered for the study. A state of art
of bus voltage in residential DC microgrid has been done. Unipolar and
bipolar distribution topologies are indifferently found in the literature,
each one having their pros and cons; these topologies can be presented
in single bus or multi-bus configuration system. Despite the excellent
performances offered by DC microgrids and the multitude of research
on control methods, the implementation of different distribution
topologies and the energy management, the protection schemes of DC

210€

microgrids remains a challenge. Most studies performed on DC micro-

520

grid defaults consider voltage source converter as line regulating con-

verter. Moreover, the existing protection schemes for DC distribution
system based on DC fuses and traditional electromechanical circuit
Boost (not yet commercialized) 115€
Buck-boost (not yet commercialized)
Boost (not yet commercialized) 80€

breaker cannot manage to interrupt the current flow in the desired time
because of the default nature and the devices slowness. So solid state
circuit breaker and hybrid circuit breaker are currently the center of
attention of researchers. These latters use power electronic devices to
help in current interruption in case of default.
A survey of DC home appliances has been performed and it pin-
pointed that the most encountered commercialized DC loads generally
run on 12 or 24 V. Some loads operating on 48 VDC also exist on the
210€

market but they are not yet as numerous as the previous. DC loads of
60 V

520

higher rated voltage than these latter are rarely found in commercia-
lized version. Hence the use of higher voltage level will induce the use
of step-down converter as interface between the bus and the loads.
Buck-boost (not yet commercialized)

Apart from that, some researchers focused their attention on adapting

the existing AC home appliances to run on DC without bringing major
Boost SD-500L-48 108.33€

modification.
Boost SD-350B-48 72.47€

Electrical safety in DC distribution system shows that using a vol-

tage lower than 15 V is safe for the user whatever the power of the
application, without implementing protection scheme. For voltage level
comprised between 15 and 100 V, depending on whether the power is
greater or less than 1000 W, protection must be implemented for the
499.13
210€

first while the last one does not need. And for voltage higher than
48 V

100 V, protections are mandatory while the current in the application is

higher than 40 mA.
Regarding the performance comparison applied to the studied
Buck-boost (not yet commercialized)

system, in order to remain in scope where only basic protection is

needed, we considered voltage level ranging from 12 to 100 V. Among
the investigate voltage, the 100 VDC presents the best performance in
Buck SD-350B-24 72.47€

terms of voltage drop, power losses and maximum allowed cable length,
while the 12 VDC presents the worst. The performances improve with
the increase of voltage level except for the 60 VDC who presents a
(Not needed)

poorer performance than the 48 VDC due to the small difference in

cable cross-section while their voltage difference is considerable.
282.47
210€
24 V

Though the 100 VDC distribution system offer the best performance, the
absence of DC home appliance directly rated at this voltage makes this
distribution a questionable choice due to the need to add an interfacing
Buck-boost (not yet commercialized)

converter. From an economic point of view, the bus level choice de-
pends on the cable, protection and converter costs. The cable cost is
determined depending on the cable cross-section and the size of the
Line regulating converter for the case study.

considered house. Considering the cable length needed for the in-
Buck SD-350B-12 72.47€

stallation and its cross-section, the cost of the cable will be deduced
from. In addition, the protection devices are selected according to the
cable size and the different house circuitry. For our case study, the
(Not needed)

hazard class is 2.2 and protection by circuit breaker is adopted. The

ready-to-use DC home appliances available on the market must be
282.47
210€
12 V

equally taken into account. Moreover, the use of bus voltage different
from 12 V–24 V-48 V implies the need to use an additional converter to
Wind turbine LRC
PV generator LRC

interface the bus and the loads, not to mention a change in the wiring
Total price [€]

and protection of the installation. That will increase the cost of the
Bus voltage

application. Hence choosing a bus voltage level corresponding to the

ESS LRC
Table 11

rated voltage of existing commercialized load will lead to the elim-

ination of an additional interface converter. Taking into consideration
the cost and the performance in terms of power losses, the 48 V DC

12
S. Moussa et al. Sustainable Cities and Society 46 (2019) 101431

Table 12 view]. IEEE Power and Energy Magazine, 10, 103–104. https://doi.org/10.1109/MPE.
Point of load converter for the case study. 2012.2212617.
Garbesi, K. (2012). Catalog of DC appliances and power systems.
Bus voltage 12 V 24 V 48 V 60 V 100 V Gohara, E., Inami, N., Tanaka, T., Sato, A., Morii, N., Nakatsuka, Y., et al. (2014). A
practical approach of lightning protection measures for power receiving facilities in
PoLC (Not (Not (Not Buck Buck telecom building. 2014 IEEE 36th international telecommunications energy conference
needed) needed) needed) SD-1000L-24 SD-1000H- (IN℡EC). Presented at the 2014 IEEE 36th international telecommunications energy
201.38€ 24 conference (IN℡EC), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1109/INTLEC.2014.6972186.
201.38€ Golshannavaz, S., & Mortezapour, V. (2018). A generalized droop control approach for
islanded DC microgrids hosting parallel-connected DERs. Sustainable Cities and
Society, 36, 237–245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2017.09.038.
Gu, Y., Li, W., & He, X. (2016). Analysis and control of bipolar LVDC grid with DC
Table 13 symmetrical component method. IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 31, 685–694.
Installation cost refered to DC bus voltage level. https://doi.org/10.1109/TPWRS.2015.2403310.
Hooshyar, A., & Iravani, R. (2017). Microgrid protection. In: Proceedings of the IEEE, 105,
Voltage [V] 12 24 48 60 (wired with 100 (wired with 1332–1353. https://doi.org/10.1109/JPROC.2017.2669342.
24) 24) How Solar Panel Cost & Efficiency Have Changed Over Time | EnergySage. [WWW Document]
https://news.energysage.com/solar-panel-efficiency-cost-over-time/ (Accessed
Cable cost [€] 1031.87 404.76 173.89 404.76 404.76 6.19.18) .
LRC cost [€] 282.47 282.47 499.13 520 520 IEEE SA (2018). 2030.10 - standard for DC microgrids for rural and remote electricity access
PoLC cost [€] x x x 201.38 201.38 applications. [WWW Document] . (Accessed 6.20.18) https://standards.ieee.org/
Protection [€] 968.54 319.68 213.67 319.68 319.68 develop/project/2030.10.html.
Innovations Spur Era of Rapidly Declining Solar Costs | Solar Tribune (2018). Innovations
Total [€] 2282.88 1006.91 886.69 1445.82 1445.82
spur era of rapidly declining solar costs | solar tribune [WWW document]. https://so-
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