NEWS

Recently, Dong Ruiyong, the vice president of the Industrial automation business group of Shenzhen INVT Electric Co., Ltd., was interviewed by China Chuandong Network. In the interview, he shared the opportunities and challenges facing the VFD industry under the carbon peak and neutrality ("double carbon”) goals. The full text is posted as follows.

Chuandong Network: After more than twenty years of development, the VFD industry and market pattern in China have tended to mature. How do you view the opportunities and challenges of the development of the domestic VFD industry at this stage with the "double carbon” goals?

Dong Ruiyong: China’s homemade VFD industry and market pattern becoming more and more mature after more than two decades of continuous development brings both opportunities and challenges to the domestic VFD industry. Especially since the implementation of the 14th Five-Year Plan and the announcement of the "double carbon” goal, the new energy industry has been undergoing an exciting surge. However, for the traditional major energy consumer–the motor system, it is more relevant to continuously respond to the development requirements of "double carbon" from the perspective of energy consumption and make further contributions to carbon peak and carbon neutrality. At present, to meet the requirements of the goal, all kinds of energy-intensive enterprises continue to promote process optimization and energy saving, which requires the motor to be changed from the traditional, inefficient operation and speed regulation mode to the frequency-conversion driving mode. Due to the international situation, COVID-19 epidemic, and other factors, the traditional large state-owned enterprises have also opened the door for domestic brands, which is a huge market opportunity for the whole domestic VFD market. In addition, under the promotion of “double carbon” goals, the domestic motor has a standard gradually changing from IE3 to IE4 and IE5 and a form shifting from asynchronous-oriented type to PM synchronous and synchronous reluctance types. All these new energy-saving motors can’t depart from drivers. Either the new market opportunities or new motor forms raise higher requirements for drive reliability, control strategy, and control performance, which is a great challenge for the whole VFD industry.

Chuandong Network: At present, China is vigorously developing the third generation of semiconductor technology. What impact will the semiconductor devices that mainly adopt gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC) bring to the VFD products and technology?

Dong Ruiyong: The development trend of third-generation semiconductor technology is worth paying attention to. Today, GaN is more often used in low-voltage fields, for example, high-power fast charging of mobile devices, a typical application scenario of GaN. GaN is not generally less suitable for high-power, high-voltage industrial field applications.

And SiC can be the next-generation alternative to IGBT, which can realize high-speed and low-loss driving. For some occasions that need high frequency, small size, and low weight, SiC solution is a good choice, but with a relatively high device cost. Adopting SiC or not should be considered from the system level. Although SiC can effectively reduce the size of the product and the overall product loss, EMI issues and the motor DUDT issues caused by the increased switching frequency require special consideration. INVT has been researching SiC device applications since 2017 and has already launched SiC-based high-speed drivers.

Chuandong Network: In the last one or two years, some leading enterprises have started to explore the intelligent application of VFD. What do you think about this? What role will VFDs play in intelligent production site design solutions? 

Dong Ruiyong: With the trend of Industry 4.0 and digital transformation, intelligence has become the central theme of the development of the entire industrial sector. For the VFD industry, the transition from the traditional standard VFD to the overall solution for the industry is gradually taking place. As an overall solution, the all-in-one machine with VFD as the main body has become mainstream in several industries and assumed the key role in the core of overall equipment intelligence.