Operation Characteristics of Mechanical DC Circuit Breaker Combined with LC Divergence Oscillation Circuit for High Reliability of LVDC System

Sang-Yong Park and Hyo-Sang Choi
Additional contact information
Sang-Yong Park: Department of Electrical Engineering, Chosun University, Gwangju 61452, Korea
Hyo-Sang Choi: Department of Electrical Engineering, Chosun University, Gwangju 61452, Korea

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 16, 1-17

Abstract: DC systems are modernly starting to come into the spotlight again due to the carbon-neutral policy, the development of semiconductor devices for power, and the increase in digital loads. We need to prepare in advance solutions to problems that may arise from fault currents due to transients for future DC power grid models. In the case of DC, there is no current zero-point because there is no frequency. Therefore, a large switching surge is generated when the circuit breaker cuts off the fault current. The possibility of insulation breakdown is greater than that of AC in severe cases. We consider power semiconductors or superconducting current limiters as an alternative. However, DC breaking cannot be safely achieved by itself. For reliable DC breaking, mechanical circuit breakers must be used with them. Among the mechanical shut-off methods, we adopted the divergence oscillation method. It has the biggest advantage compared to other methods in that it has a simple structure by composing passive elements and can artificially create zero current. In addition, it can be applied to a power semiconductor and a superconducting current limiter to perform a high-reliability cut-off operation. In this paper, we conducted simulation analysis by configuring the DC power grid and DC cut-off system through the PSCAD/EMTDC program. Results confirmed that the application of the LC divergence oscillation circuit can reduce the cut-off time and reduce the power burden of the mechanical DC circuit breaker (MCB).

Keywords: LVDC; LC divergence oscillation circuit; DC circuit breaker; zero point (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/16/5097/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/16/5097/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:16:p:5097-:d:617148

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().