DC vs. AC distribution: Revealing the efficiency advantage of DC in today's energy landscape

Asfand Haroon; Hasan Erteza Gelani; Hira Tahir; Habib Ullah Manzoor

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0318444

DC vs. AC distribution: Revealing the efficiency advantage of DC in today's energy landscape

Asfand Haroon, Hasan Erteza Gelani, Hira Tahir^*, Habib Ullah Manzoor^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Interdisciplinary Research Center for Smart Mobility and Logistics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The new millennium witnessed an unanticipated escalation in the installation of rooftop solar panels, particularly due to the development of highly efficient power electronic converters (PECs). The ‘battle of currents’ between AC and DC, which settled in the favor of AC in the nineteenth century, reignited as DC is striking back due to this technological augmentation. The shifting trend towards DC is more pronounced in the residential sector, which necessitates a comparative analysis of AC and DC at distribution scale on realistic grounds. Modern home data extracted from the energy information administration (EIA) has been utilized to devise a mathematical model based on bottom-up approach. The comparative analysis has been performed encompassing scenarios of varying PEC efficiencies as a result of daily load variation. Moreover, the scenarios of multiple PEC efficiencies and rooftop solar capacities are also considered. The comparative analysis revealed efficiency advantage of 1.966%, 1.41% and 1.17% in favor of DC as compared to AC for the scenarios considered. In the end future recommendations are presented to further enhance the efficiency of DC, thereby providing a concrete standing for power industry decision of adopting DC at distribution scale.

Original language	English
Article number	e0318444
Journal	PLoS ONE
Volume	20
Issue number	5 May
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0318444
State	Published - May 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 Haroon et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1371/journal.pone.0318444

Cite this

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title = "DC vs. AC distribution: Revealing the efficiency advantage of DC in today's energy landscape",

abstract = "The new millennium witnessed an unanticipated escalation in the installation of rooftop solar panels, particularly due to the development of highly efficient power electronic converters (PECs). The {\textquoteleft}battle of currents{\textquoteright} between AC and DC, which settled in the favor of AC in the nineteenth century, reignited as DC is striking back due to this technological augmentation. The shifting trend towards DC is more pronounced in the residential sector, which necessitates a comparative analysis of AC and DC at distribution scale on realistic grounds. Modern home data extracted from the energy information administration (EIA) has been utilized to devise a mathematical model based on bottom-up approach. The comparative analysis has been performed encompassing scenarios of varying PEC efficiencies as a result of daily load variation. Moreover, the scenarios of multiple PEC efficiencies and rooftop solar capacities are also considered. The comparative analysis revealed efficiency advantage of 1.966\%, 1.41\% and 1.17\% in favor of DC as compared to AC for the scenarios considered. In the end future recommendations are presented to further enhance the efficiency of DC, thereby providing a concrete standing for power industry decision of adopting DC at distribution scale.",

author = "Asfand Haroon and Gelani, \{Hasan Erteza\} and Hira Tahir and Manzoor, \{Habib Ullah\}",

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AU - Haroon, Asfand

AU - Gelani, Hasan Erteza

AU - Tahir, Hira

AU - Manzoor, Habib Ullah

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2025 Haroon et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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N2 - The new millennium witnessed an unanticipated escalation in the installation of rooftop solar panels, particularly due to the development of highly efficient power electronic converters (PECs). The ‘battle of currents’ between AC and DC, which settled in the favor of AC in the nineteenth century, reignited as DC is striking back due to this technological augmentation. The shifting trend towards DC is more pronounced in the residential sector, which necessitates a comparative analysis of AC and DC at distribution scale on realistic grounds. Modern home data extracted from the energy information administration (EIA) has been utilized to devise a mathematical model based on bottom-up approach. The comparative analysis has been performed encompassing scenarios of varying PEC efficiencies as a result of daily load variation. Moreover, the scenarios of multiple PEC efficiencies and rooftop solar capacities are also considered. The comparative analysis revealed efficiency advantage of 1.966%, 1.41% and 1.17% in favor of DC as compared to AC for the scenarios considered. In the end future recommendations are presented to further enhance the efficiency of DC, thereby providing a concrete standing for power industry decision of adopting DC at distribution scale.

AB - The new millennium witnessed an unanticipated escalation in the installation of rooftop solar panels, particularly due to the development of highly efficient power electronic converters (PECs). The ‘battle of currents’ between AC and DC, which settled in the favor of AC in the nineteenth century, reignited as DC is striking back due to this technological augmentation. The shifting trend towards DC is more pronounced in the residential sector, which necessitates a comparative analysis of AC and DC at distribution scale on realistic grounds. Modern home data extracted from the energy information administration (EIA) has been utilized to devise a mathematical model based on bottom-up approach. The comparative analysis has been performed encompassing scenarios of varying PEC efficiencies as a result of daily load variation. Moreover, the scenarios of multiple PEC efficiencies and rooftop solar capacities are also considered. The comparative analysis revealed efficiency advantage of 1.966%, 1.41% and 1.17% in favor of DC as compared to AC for the scenarios considered. In the end future recommendations are presented to further enhance the efficiency of DC, thereby providing a concrete standing for power industry decision of adopting DC at distribution scale.

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DC vs. AC distribution: Revealing the efficiency advantage of DC in today's energy landscape

Abstract

Bibliographical note

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

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