Triggered-vacuum switch-based fault-current limiter

A new fault current limiter (FCL) is proposed based on triggered vacuum switch (TVS). The TVS-based FCL (TFCL) is mainly composed of a capacitor, a current-limiting reactor connected with the capacitor in series and a TVS connected with the capacitor in parallel. With the TVS in the off or on state, the whole TFCL behaves as a conventional series compensation or fault current limitation, respectively. Compared with other types of FCL, such as superconductivity, thyristor/GTO-based FCL, TFCL demonstrates distinguished characteristics, such as high capacity, loss free, and low price. The digital simulation and prototype experiment based on LC resonant test circuit show that it is feasible to develop TFCL