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To improve the consumption of renewable energy and to meet complex load demands. A model of a multi-terminal flexible DC distribution network with multiple overhead branch lines is constructed. Aiming at frequent non-permanent faults of overhead lines, a fast pilot protection scheme is proposed to cover the whole fault process. Using the hybrid DC circuit breaker (HDCCB) action as the boundary mark, the fast pilot protection can be divided into two phases: post-fault and fault restart. The first phase highlights rapidity, sending a trip command to HDCCB within 1-2 ms after the fault. The second stage emphasizes reliability, and points out that the data of the whole fault process should be fully utilized, and to fully excavate the characteristics of fault current. A multi-time scale and multi-criteria fusion protection scheme is proposed, which can effectively improve the reliability of fault area identification. Finally, a corresponding model was built based on PSCAD, a large number of simulation tests and robustness analysis proved that the proposed fast pilot protection scheme is feasible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reliability of meshed DC grids mainly relies on their ability in DC fault protection and line power flow managing. Multiple DC circuit breakers (DCCB) and current flow controller (CFC) need to be installed, which significantly increases the system cost. A novel current flow controller integrated with hybrid dc circuit breaker (CFC-IHCB) is proposed to significantly reduce the loss and cost of the whole system. Only one unidirectional IGBT string based main breaker branch is needed for n lines, and the CFC function is integrated into the load communication switches (LCSs). The basic working principle of proposed topology is presented and analyzed. The functionality is verified and a comparison of the proposed solution and other DCCB/CFC solutions is given based on a multi-terminal HVDC system case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hybrid dc circuit breakers (HCBs) are recognized as suitable devices for protecting high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) systems, along with other dc circuit breakers (DCCB). However, compared to mechanical circuit breakers, HCBs exhibit higher conduction losses. Such losses are inevitable under no-fault conditions as current may flow through some of the semiconductor switches. An integrated circuit breaker (ICB) minimizing these losses is presented in this paper, and this is achieved by replacing semiconductor switches by mechanical components in the current path. For completeness, the topology design, operating sequence and a mathematical analysis for component sizing of the device are provided. In addition, an estimation of the conduction losses is quantified. It is estimated that the power losses of an ICB are 2 to 30% of an HCB only. The ICB has been implemented in PSCAD/EMTDC to demonstrate its effectiveness for isolating dc faults, with simulations conducted on a three-terminal HVDC grid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hybrid circuit breaker (HCB) has shown good performance for interrupting dc fault current. However, a massive number of IGBTs in series is needed. These will lead to high costs and significant difficulty in balancing IGBT dynamic voltage. This paper proposes a bidirectional hybrid circuit breaker based on a cascaded half-bridge submodule structure to reduce the overall costs and implementation difficulty of HCB. The number of IGBTs is reduced by 50%, and the operating speed is fast enough. A model of a four-terminal modular multilevel converter (MMC) system with a proposed hybrid circuit breaker in different stages is developed to describe the fault blocking process more clearly. The performance of the proposed HCB is validated and compared with other HCB structure through both theoretical derivation and time-domain simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owing to the increased demand for DC interruption, a prototype current-limiting hybrid DC circuit breaker incorporating a fuse and a semiconductor device was developed, based on a completely novel design concept. Recently, hybrid DC breakers have been attracting attention because of their low conduction loss and high-speed current interruption capability. The superiority of this hybrid DC circuit breaker lies in the simultaneous use of the high-speed current-limiting performance of the fuse and the highly reliable current-interruption performance of the semiconductor device. Furthermore, the hybrid DC circuit breaker performs the current interruption without any mechanical contact, thus preventing any delay in operation induced by the mechanical contact. The feasibility of the proposed concept was demonstrated by the successful application of the circuit breaker in a 1 kA fault current interruption procedure. Hence, the current-limiting hybrid DC circuit breaker is suitable for low voltage and medium voltage DC system protection. As the fuses and semiconductor modules progress, the hybrid DC circuit breaker may also adapt to HVDC systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]