Review of talkative power conversion from power electronics and communication perspectives

The growing integration of renewable energy in buildings, industry, and transport introduces operational challenges due to its distributed and variable nature. Efficient coordination among multiple Power Electronic Converters (PECs) is essential to ensure reliable energy delivery and optimal system performance, with communication playing a crucial role in enabling cooperative control among PECs, forming the foundation of the energy internet. PECs not only perform power conversion but also possess inherent capabilities for information transmission, known as Talkative Power Conversion (TPC). This paper systematically traces, for the first time, the historical evolution of TPC technology and analyzes the mechanism enabling PECs to transmit power and information simultaneously through physical-layer modeling, integrating both power electronics and communication engineering perspectives. The impacts of TPC parameters on ten key performance metrics across these two disciplines are examined from a cross-disciplinary perspective. A novel TPC parameter-performance matrix is summarized to reveal the relationships between parameters and performance metrics, supporting future cross-disciplinary design. Furthermore, the implementation and potential limitations of TPC in various topology categories and application scenarios are systematically evaluated, addressing gaps not fully covered in previous reviews. Finally, some foreseeable potential challenges associated with the application of TPC in large-scale systems are also discussed, with the aim of inspiring future research in this promising area.