Sound on. Power on.

In episode 8 of "Sound On. Power On.", Frank Osterwald talks about how research, industry, society, and projects from materials and components, to control systems and sector coupling come together for the energy transition and climate protection.

Performance, speed, control and measurability – in episode 7 of "Sound on. Power on.", Michael Himmels, Head of Product Management at EA Elektro-Automatik, talks about the electrification of the world, technological challenges related to energy-hungry industrial applications and how modern power electronics contribute to overcome them.

The design and deployment of power converters are essential for the efficiency and smooth operation of our modern smart grids. In episode 6 of the "Sound On. Power On." podcast, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Marco Liserre, Chair of Power Electronics, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, talks about the role of power converters in so many parts of the modern grid.

Magnetic materials have a special role to play in opening the bottlenecks in achieving higher power densities, higher frequencies, and smaller and lighter components for electrical power supply systems. This involves exploring new materials, new ways of combining materials, and new form factors. The results can stretch the specifications - such as frequencies up to the 10s of MHz - and reduce the challenges of cooling requirements, and skin and proximity effects, as well as the handling of resonant frequencies and the variety of fluxes in multifrequency components. Listen to the fascinating conversation between Prof. Marco Jung and Prof. Peter Zacharias, Head of the Department for Electrical Power Supply Systems at Kassel University, in episode 5 of the"Sound On. Power On." podcast.

The efficiency of switch-mode power supplies impacts energy use, from the consumption of the smart-phones in our pockets, to the photovoltaics powering our grids. Pushing that efficiency beyond today's 98% has an important role to play in fighting climate change - and energy costs. While the last 40 years have brought many advances in semiconductors, there is an increasing need for investment to improve the capabilities and properties of magnetic materials too. Prof. Marco Jung talks to Dr. Peter Wallmeier, Senior Director R&D at Delta Energy Systems, about the issues in episode 4 of the"Sound On. Power On." podcast. They also discuss the important opportunity presented by the combination of reactive loading, renewable power sources and storage in alleviating the voltage and frequency deviations that result from the increasing stresses on our modern, complex and interconnected power grids.

Real-time simulation helps accelerate development and derisk early implementations in the race to transform to e-mobility and renewables. (Power) hardware-in-the-loop plays an important role. Among notable current needs is to simulate the new scenarios presented by grids with converter-driven energy sources, not least in testing for resonances, or black start conditions. For real-time simulation - particularly integrating power hardware - this presents new challenges to balance stability, accuracy, speed, and scale. Prof. Marco Jung talks to Dr. Ravinder Venugopal, Managing Director at OPAL-RT Germany, about the issues and approaches (from parallel processing to solvers and FPGAs) in episode 3 of the"Sound On. Power On." podcast. The power electronics podcast you’ve been waiting for – powered by PCIM Europe. They also discuss the future, with digital twins harnessing live data to improve real-time simulations, with the support of AI.

In the second episode of "Sound On. Power On." host Prof. Marco Jung and Dr. Peter Friedrichs, Vice President SiC at Infineon, discuss the most important applications of WBG power semiconductors and give an outlook on the future. The power electronics podcast you’ve been waiting for: “Sound on. Power on.”, powered by PCIM Europe.

In the first episode of “Sound On. Power On.” host Prof. Marco Jung and his guest Prof. Frede Blaabjerg from the Aalborg University in Denmark discuss trends in power electronics.