1

AC Versus DC Distribution Systems—Did We

Get it Right?
Donald J. Hammerstrom, Senior Member, IEEE1

exposure to 50/60-Hz electromagnetic fields [2], for example.

Abstract--We presently enjoy a predominantly ac electrical We concede that HVDC transmission projects have been
distribution system, the engineering basis for which was designed given due economic consideration and will not be
over 100 years ago. While ac distribution systems have served us reconsidered here. We will instead focus on low-voltage and
well, we should periodically pause to assess what opportunities we
premise distribution systems. With so much investment
have accepted or been denied by the overwhelming
predominance of ac electrical power distribution systems. What having been made in low-voltage ac distribution systems, the
opportunities could be obtained by engineering dc distribution challenge would be great to enact change, but we argue that
into at least portions of our present system? What advantages of such changes, if made, would be very influential to the
the present ac distribution system should be recognized and operation of the future power grid and could provide
protected? This paper will focus on distribution within premise flexibility needed for the successful operation of micro-grids
and low-voltage distribution systems. Specifically, we will address
the conversion efficiency costs of adopting various premise ac and
[3].
dc distribution system topologies. According to a simple The middle sections of this paper will list the issues that
predictive model formulated in this paper, premise residential dc are today influencing the balance between ac and dc in our
distribution will incur unfavorable total conversion efficiency present systems and will list the strongest attributes of ac and
compared with existing ac premise distribution. However, if a dc premise distribution.
residence is supplied by a fuel cell or another dc generator, the A simple model will then be suggested for the comparison
total conversion efficiency within a residential dc distribution
system could be similar to, or even better than, that for ac
of ac and dc premise systems. The approach used in this paper
distribution. will extend the consideration of dc distribution within
commercial facilities, as discussed in [4], to residential
Index Terms-- Dc power systems, energy conversion, energy facilities. We will emphasize the conversion efficiency costs
management, energy storage, power distribution, power of comparable ac and dc premise distribution systems with
distribution economics, power supplies, power system economics. and without sources of local dc generation.

I. INTRODUCTION II. INFLUENCIAL ISSUES

T HIS article reopens a discussion, the initiation of which

may be attributed to competition between Thomas Edison
and George Westinghouse, concerning the relative merits of
A. Energy Storage, Distributed Generation and Control, and
Micro-grids
dc and ac distribution systems. While the late 19th Century is Electric power system resources and their controls have
noted for some of the world’s most inventive engineering, this become increasingly distributed, and there will be increasing
competition was apparently influenced also by the attribution pressure to accommodate renewable and other distributed
of dc or ac for use in a controversial new invention—the generation resources, many of which cannot be incorporated
electric chair [1]. Since then, ac distribution won favor and without power electronic interfaces [5]. Of particular interest
has become inextricably woven into our electric power will be the future use of stationary fuel cells [6] and micro-
systems. Nonetheless, we should benefit periodically from a grids [3].
reevaluation of our engineering approaches. Indeed, such a Many renewable power sources, including photovoltaic
reconsideration of this paradigm led to the design and generation, are inherently dc supplies. Wind energy too can be
construction of economical HVDC transmission over long better optimized if at least part of the wind generator’s
distances, didn’t it? And, as was the case in the 19th Century, capacity is coupled through power electronic conversion that
the relative merits of ac and dc distribution are perhaps again often includes a dc bus [5]. The conversion from dc power to
vulnerable to controversy—health concerns from human ac and later back to dc incurs multiple losses during
conversions that might be avoided. Our present ac distribution
This work is supported by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, system has virtually no energy storage, but dc energy is quite
operated for the U.S. Department of Energy by Battelle under Contract DE- naturally stored in batteries.
AC06-76RL01830.
D. J. Hammerstrom is with the Energy Science and Technology Division, B. Battery Chargers and Electric Vehicles
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, P. O. Box 999, MSIN: K1-85,
Richland, WA 99352 USA (e-mail: [email protected]). Battery chargers are extensively used for cordless tools,

1-4244-1298-6/07/$25.00 ©2007
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to: Universidad Restrictions apply.
 2

laptop computers, and other portable electronics. The fate of dc power. Our movement away from less-efficient
electric vehicle technology will also affect this debate [7]. Not incandescent lighting toward lighting technologies like
only could fleets of electric vehicles become significant compact fluorescent fixtures (and eventually solid-state
consumers of electrical power, but their batteries could also lighting) could accompany dc distribution. Doing so would
provide improved grid reliability and energy storage whenever save and consolidate at least one conversion step that is
they are grid-connected by pushing power back onto the presently performed at each lighting fixture.
power grid. A similar argument can be made for home electronics
devices, all of which require dc power and must rectify ac
C. Computers, Lighting, and Home Electronics
power supplied to them.
Electronics, including energy-hungry computer servers,
have become significant system loads. The nature of lighting, E. Variable-speed Drives
too, is changing as consumers select efficient alternatives to Variable-speed drives, both in generation and loads, help
replace their incandescent lights. These devices require a match the input and output power. The result can be improved
source of dc power. Focusing primarily on server applications, efficiency, improved personal comfort, or both. Variable
reference [8] reviews the complexity of the power supplies for speed control is more easily obtained from a dc source.
such electronic devices. Presently, each electronic load has its
F. Power Quality
own dedicated power supply. Savings might be obtained by
avoiding such redundancies. Regardless, power electronic While power electronics are frequently viewed as a cause
converters and power supplies play an important role for the of poor power quality, power electronic converters can meet
future of electronic equipment [9]. most power quality standards placed on an ac system and
could even improve ac power quality. The first stages of dc
D. Naval and Oceanographic Research power supplies should always perform power factor
Finally, shipboard and undersea dc power system research correction. Good design practices and filtering also assure
has improved our understanding of, control of, and equipment acceptable harmonic power quality.
for dc distribution systems. We cite, for examples, efforts to The opportunity arises from using power electronic
redesign “all-electric” ships and the recent Neptune project, conversion for not only preventing poor power quality, but
which aims to build a series of undersea research sites off the also for improving power quality.
Pacific coasts of Canada and United States [10].
G. 60-Hz health Concerns
III. ADVANTAGES OF AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR DC Potential health concerns from human exposure to 60-Hz
DISTRIBUTION distribution could drive us toward increased use of dc
distribution systems [2].
A. Incorporation of Renewable Energy Resources
Dc renewable energy resources could be much more IV. ADVANTAGES OF AC DISTRIBUTION
readily incorporated into a premise dc bus. Doing so would
A. Voltage Transformation
eliminate conversions, each of which saves between 2.5 %
and 10 % of the developed energy. Perhaps the greatest benefit available to ac systems is the
ease with which ac voltage can be elevated for distribution
B. Reliability and Uninterruptible Supplies over distance and again lowered, if necessary, near the load.
Our growing desire for reliable information technologies Dc voltage conversion is improving, but dc voltage conversion
requires uninterruptible power supplies. Each such supply might never be so simple, and has not yet reached the place
must provide dc bus battery storage, which can continue to where dc converters can routinely compete with transformers
supply an application with power during unplanned ac for high-voltage distribution. The exception is HVDC
outages. transmission, which rectifies and inverts to and from high-
voltage dc at only a limited number of remote substations.
C. Voltage Stability
We are reminded in [11] that dc distribution system B. Circuit Breaker Protection
components will not alleviate, and might exacerbate, our Circuit protection is more mature for ac distribution
voltage stability calculations and challenges, especially if dc systems than for dc systems, so it might be impossible to
and ac distribution will coexist, as they must. Nonetheless, make a fair comparison. Ac circuit protection schemes benefit
active input stages of power supplies might not only assure from periodic zero voltage crossings, at which times circuit
good power factor, they might also inject reactive power into breakers have an improved likelihood to extinguish a fault
their ac supplies to help control voltage and provide voltage current arc. But [12] concludes that this limitation is not so
stability. severe for the protection of low dc potential circuits.
D. Fluorescent Lighting and Electronics C. Voltage Stability
Fluorescent lighting electronic ballasts are well served by Voltage stability is an issue for both ac and dc distribution

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 3

systems and becomes even more challenging where ac and dc hinted in the cited paper. We focus on residential systems.
are mixed [11]. The advantage of an ac system is that the The 2001 Energy Information Administration data [14]
stable voltage can be controlled independently from real lists typical residential electrical consumption for major
power through the management of reactive power. In a dc categories of household loads. These major categories and
system, voltage drops are direct consequences of real power their relative energy consumption are reproduced in Table I.
flow over a conductor’s length. The relative load fractions will be used to weight each load
This being said, there is an interesting interplay between ac category, and the categories themselves represent similar
systems and power electronic conversion equipment. Active loads that will possess similar power conversion requirements.
power supplies can manage power factor at their terminals
TABLE I
[13] and could inject reactive power into an ac system to help AVERAGE ELECTRICAL CONSUMPTION BY APPLIANCE CATEGORY [14]
control ac system voltage.
U.S. Mean Household
V. APPROACH FOR COMPARISON OF SYSTEM CONVERSION Appliance Category Energy (%)
EFFICIENCIES FOR RESIDENCES Heating, Ventilation, Cooling 31.2
Kitchen Appliances 26.7
In this section, we provide a simple model and context by Water Heating 9.1
which we will be able to assess the tradeoffs between dc and Lighting (Incandescent / Fluor.) 4.4 / 4.4
ac premise distribution with respect to numbers of required Home Electronics 7.2
conversion steps, each of which incurs an efficiency penalty. Laundry Appliances 6.7
Other Equipment 2.5
We begin by reviewing the approach and conclusions of
Other 7.7
Sannino et al. [4]. The authors modeled the distribution of
electric power within their own research office facility
Given far too many degrees of freedom, innumerable
supplied by 400-V three-phase ac, as now exists, and by four
unique converter topologies, and a desire to model a system
different dc voltages ranging from 48 to 326 V. Distribution
for which there is not yet a complete set of components on the
power losses and current conduction limitations on
market, we accept simplifications that will permit us to
conductors were modeled. Also addressed were opportunities
proceed. This author’s power conversion experience and [8]
for centralized uninterruptible power supplies and needs for
give us confidence to generously assert that each power
circuit protection.
conversion stage loses about 2.5 % of the energy it converts.
Rather than repeat the approach of [4], we summarize and
This estimation, while not perfect, has good predictive ability
accept the paper’s general conclusions concerning application
for first-order assessments. Approximately 102.5 % of a
of dc distribution to commercial premises: (1) System losses
transformer’s secondary power must be supplied to its
can be reduced and system efficiency thereby improved if a
primary; a transformer rectifier requires an input energy about
moderately high dc voltage is adopted for premise
(1.025)2 times its output energy; a three-stage converter
distribution. At 326 V dc, the authors concluded that existing
requires (1.025)3 times its output energy, and so on.
commercial conductors could be used without modification.
Additional implicit assumptions are necessary: (1) We
(2) If battery energy storage were added to their commercial
ignore effects of daily and seasonal load patterns that could
office building’s dc distribution bus, it could supply
alter the losses attributed to each load category. Appliance
emergency backup power to their entire premise for hours, not
power is treated as a constant. (2) We assume that each ac
15 minutes or less, as is now typical for device uninterruptible
load has an acceptable counterpart in the dc distribution
power supplies. This centralized emergency backup solution
system. Comparable permanent magnet motors replace
also cost less than multiple individual backup power supplies.
induction motors with no penalty imposed. (3) The number of
(3) Adequate premise dc fault protection was found to be
conversion steps and their inefficiencies accumulate for each
available from commercially available circuit breakers at the
load from the point of common connection—what is presently
dc voltage under consideration [12]. (4) The authors
the utility side of the premise transformer. (4) With the
recognized other safety advantages, too, including less dc
exception of lighting, all categories are assigned a single
contact danger to humans and avoidance from exposing
common number of conversion steps. Lighting was divided
humans to electromagnetic fields.
equally into two subcategories—incandescent and
This paper’s background permits us to proceed from an
fluorescent—because the two lighting types must be assigned
assertion that combinations of conductor, dc potential, and
different numbers of conversion steps. (5) This strategy
circuit protection can be engineered to provide dc power to
admittedly fails to account for numerous qualities that would
premise loads with efficiencies similar to existing ac premise
be considered for a specific and real premise, where
systems. In fact, we eliminate the further consideration of
individual appliance efficiency tradeoffs and even insulation
conductor losses altogether by asserting that each of our cases
would be expected to sway our engineering decision. (6) The
to be studied will have identical conductor losses. The next
assignment of numbers of conversion steps is admittedly
step should be evaluation of system conversion efficiency for
arguable because so many conversion topologies exist or
various conversion strategies in the premise, which were only
could evolve for each appliance category should dc

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 4

distribution become common. batteries.

(7) The costs of additional premise infrastructure and any Case 4 models a fuel cell in an ac system as is frequently
differences in purchase costs between ac and dc appliances suggested for stationary fuel cell systems [6]. One can see that
are ignored. This analysis also ignores potential improved additional conversion steps are required to convert from dc to
efficiencies that might result from scaling of converters— ac and, in some cases, back to dc again.
using one high-quality converter instead of multiple Case 3 shows that generation of dc directly onto a premise
inexpensive ones, for example. dc bus is advantageous with conversion efficiencies
comparable to those in our existing ac approach. Using a local
VI. MODEL RESULTS dc generator connected to the ac grid and thus requiring an
We now apply this simple strategy to various ac and dc inverter, as in Case 4, incurs unfavorable conversion
premise distribution topologies (refer to Table II). Case 1 is a inefficiencies.
model of the existing ac distribution system serving the
TABLE III.
typical home of Table I. Most entries show only one COMPARISON OF SYSTEM CONVERSION EFFICIENCY FOR A RESIDENTIAL FUEL
conversion—that of the ac distribution transformer. Only CELL SYSTEM WITH (CASE 3) AND WITHOUT (CASE 4) A PREMISE DC
fluorescent lighting and home electronics were assigned DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

multiple conversion stages.

Case 3. Premise Fuel Cell Case 4. Premise Fuel Cell
For Case 2, we model a system where rectification occurs with Dc Distribution with Ac Distribution
immediately and supplies a premise dc bus. All appliances Number Efficiency Number Efficiency
Appliance
reflect at least the two conversion steps from transformation Conversions (%) Conversions (%)
and rectification. The fact that all energy must become Heating, Vent. 1 97.6 2 95.2
rectified from the bulk ac distribution system results in about Kitchen Appl. 1 97.6 2 95.2
Water Heating 1 97.6 2 95.2
a 2.0 % conversion efficiency penalty for the premise dc
Lights-Incand. 1 97.6 2 95.2
distribution Case 2 when it is compared against Case 1. Lights-Fluor. 2 95.2 4 90.6
Recall that the reported average conversion efficiencies of Home Elect. 2 95.2 5 88.4
Table II are weighted by the fraction that each residential load Laundry Appl. 1 97.6 2 95.2
type contributes to total residential load. Commercial Other Equip. 1 97.6 2 95.2
premises would be expected to have higher percentages of Other End Use 1 97.6 2 95.2
Weighted Ave. 97.3 % 94.5 %
fluorescent lighting and electronics in their loads. Therefore,
similar estimates performed for conversion efficiencies in
commercial premises would be more favorable for the Case 2
VII. CONCLUSIONS
scenario than was shown here for residences.
Groundwork was laid for the comparison of dc and ac low-
TABLE II voltage and premise energy distribution networks. The
COMPARISON OF SYSTEM CONVERSION EFFICIENCY FOR A CONVENTIONAL AC advantages of ac and dc systems were listed as were several
HOME (CASE 1) AND ONE WITH A PREMISE DC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM (CASE 2)
contemporary issues that could affect the future inclusion of
Case 1. Ac Distribution Case 2. Dc Distribution dc distribution into our present power systems. After
Number Efficiency Number Efficiency accepting the conclusions of a cited paper, in which conductor
Appliance
Conversions (%) Conversions (%) losses in commercial premise ac and dc distribution systems
Heating, Vent. 1 97.6 2 95.2 had been compared, we addressed how series conversion
Kitchen Appl. 1 97.6 2 95.2
losses may affect the viability of premise dc distribution. A
Water Heating 1 97.6 2 95.2
Lights-Incand. 1 97.6 2 95.2 systematic method was introduced to create a fair comparison
Lights-Fluor. 3 92.9 2 95.2 of such hypothetical energy systems.
Home Elect. 3 92.9 3 92.9 The use of residential dc distribution by itself was
Laundry Appl. 1 97.6 2 95.2 predicted to be disadvantageous because of the inefficiency of
Other Equip. 1 97.6 2 95.2 the combined transformer rectifier needed to convert bulk ac
Other End Use 1 97.6 2 95.2
power to premise dc power. However, it was shown that fuel
Weighted Ave. 97.0 % 95.0 %
cells or other local dc generation that feed directly into a
premise dc bus could have favorable conversion losses. This
Refer now to Table III, Case 3, in which a fuel cell or other
was especially true when compared against a premise dc
premise dc generation contributes the entire home’s energy.
generation source that must immediately convert its energy to
One can probably assume battery support of the dc bus is
ac form.
provided for short-term burst power without affecting this
discussion. Selection of a photovoltaic dc generator or another
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Donald J. Hammerstrom (S’94, M’95, SM’06)

earned a B.A. in chemistry from St. Olaf College,
Northfield, Minnesota, a B.S. in education from
Eastern Montana College, Billings, Montana and M.S.
and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from
Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana in 1991
and 1994, respectively.
He is employed by Battelle Memorial Institute as a
senior research engineer in the Energy Science and
Technology Division of Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory, Richland, Washington. He presently
manages field demonstrations of smart grid technologies for the U.S. Department
of Energy, leads technology development of grid-responsive loads, and develops
power electronic converter applications. Prior to joining Battelle, he designed
power converters, biological sample collectors, and surface decontamination
systems for startup companies in Washington State. He has authored United
States patents in the diverse areas of energy management systems, power
electronic converters, microtechnology, microbe decontamination, and aerosol
sample collection.

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