Operation principle and hardware description 13
Overview of the common DC system
In a common DC system, you connect the DC links of several drives together in order to
share their DC link energy storages. In addition to this basic configuration, there is a wide
variety of additional choices with which you can affect the performance of the system. For
example, in certain applications you can:
• connect only one of the drives to the AC power line, and supply the other drives only
through the common DC link
• connect a shared brake chopper and resistor to the common DC link to absorb the
occasional surplus energy pulses that you cannot use in the drives
• connect one regenerative drive to a common DC link to convey the surplus motor
braking energy pulses to the AC power line instead of brake resistors
• supply the DC link from a separate DC source.
Overview diagram of the common DC system
The diagram below shows an example of a common DC system.
1
2
3
4 5
1 AC power line
2 Common DC link
3Drive
4Motor
5 Brake resistor