Trends in Industrial Power Electronics Technology Applications

Substantial efforts have been made on the research, development, and application of flagship models of industrial power electronics products, which are required to deliver high performance, prior to home electrical appliances. This paper clarifies recent trends of power electronics, focusing mainly on typical product applications, by studying many references on related elemental technology and dividing application examples into three fields (motor drive, PV, and ESS battery). Regarding motor drives, we will introduce three‐level products developed as high‐power motor drive utilized in steel mill operations. As elemental technologies, we will present research on sensor less vector control of induction motor speed using an adaptive magnetic flux observer, multi‐objective robust optimization design, and statistical neural networks for fault diagnosis and feature processing. Regarding solar inverters, we will introduce products without cooling fans, natural convection cooling for outdoor installation, and large capacity products exceeding 3 MW. As elemental technologies, we will introduce research on various power predictions, including artificial neural networks. Regarding ESS batteries, we will introduce 500 and 100 kW PCS products. As elemental technologies, we will introduce research on balanced market optimization, scheduling control for transactions with public power networks, and power flow restriction between power transmission systems. © 2026 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC.