Transient Overvoltage Protection Solutions for Drive Inverters operating on an Open Industrial DC Grid

Inhalt:
This article focuses on the protection of drive inverters against transient overvoltages in open industrial DC grids. Due to low impedance wiring in combination with distributed capacitances, very high currents can be caused within a short time in case of load changes, especially in case of mains faults such as short circuits. Transient overvoltages above the operating voltage can occur during switching off as a result of parasitic inductances. The article describes how to protect drive inverters to prevent these events from causing damage. It also describes the difference to typical AC devices, which are also protected against transient overvoltages.