Research on fast solid state DC breaker based on a natural current zero-crossing point

Abstract

The DC fault characteristics of voltage source converter based high voltage direct current (VSC-HVDC) systems are analyzed in this paper. The phenomenon whereby the capacitor on DC side discharges quickly during a DC fault contributes to a large short-circuit fault current. Neither traditional DC breakers nor DC switches can cut off the fault current under this condition. A fast solid state DC breaker design method is proposed in this paper. This method is based on the fault current characteristics of the inverter in multi-terminal HVDC systems (MTDC), where a fault current appears at the natural zero-crossing point near the inverter. At this point, by coordinating the AC breakers near the rectifier, the DC breaker could reliably cut off the DC fault current and protect the system. A detailed model for this fast solid state DC breaker and its operation sequence are studied, based on this design method. Simulations modeling a five-terminal meshed DC grid and a fast DC breaker were carried out with PSCAD/EMTDC using this design method. The results from the simulations confirmed the validity of the design method.