Comparative study of DC circuit breakers using realtime simulations

One of the main limitations in using high voltage and medium voltage DC grids is the issues related to the current-limiting devices and circuit breakers. These devices should be able to handle large currents in the normal operation condition and block high DC currents in a few microseconds in the case of DC faults. Moreover, they are required to dissipate huge amounts of energy stored in the transmission line inductances. In this paper, four configurations of DC circuit breakers from three general groups are evaluated and the results are compared in terms of the time required by the breakers to interrupt the current, maximum DC breaking current, rated voltage, efficiency and current state of development. The performance of DC circuit breakers is evaluated when a line to ground DC fault happens in a 9 module/2 terminal DC system. Simulation results were obtained using Real Time Digital Simulator (RTDS) and PSCAD.