Modelling and control of a hybrid circuit breaker with fault current limiting ability

A new fault current limiter and circuit interrupter is proposed using a hybrid circuit breaker. The hybrid circuit breaker consists of a mechanical switch in parallel with bidirectional conducting IGBTs with anti-parallel diode modules. The varistor used in this HCB circuit to control over voltage during switching is modelled and its characteristics are presented. Modelling of the mechanical switch using Mayr arc model is presented. The fault current limitation is achieved by switching the power semiconductor devices using hysteresis control. The performance of the proposed circuit is confirmed through simulation investigations.