Circuit Breakers in Low- and Medium-Voltage DC Microgrids for Protection against Short-Circuit Electrical Faults: Evolution and Future Challenges

This paper deals with circuit breakers (CBs) used in direct current microgrids (DCMGs) for protection against electrical faults, focusing on their evolution and future challenges in low voltage (<1.5 kV) and medium voltage (between 1.5 kV and 20 kV). In recent years, proposals for new circuit-breaker features have grown. Therefore, a review on the evolution of circuit breakers for DCMGs is of utmost importance. In general terms, this paper presents a review concerning the evolution of circuit breakers used in DCMGs, focusing on fuses, mechanical circuit breakers (MCBs), solid-state circuit breakers (SSCBs), and hybrid circuit breakers (HCBs). Their evolution is presented highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of each device. It was found that although modern circuit breakers have begun to be commercially available, many of them are still under development; consequently, some traditional fuses and MCBs are still common in DCMGs, but under certain restrictions or limitations. Future challenges that would allow a successful and adequate implementation of circuit breakers in DCMGs are also presented.

DAB Based DC-DC High Frequency Link PET for Interconnecting MVDC-LVDC Grids

This paper proposes dual active bridge (DAB) based high frequency power electronic transformer (PET) for interconnecting medium voltage dc (MVDC) and low voltage dc (LVDC) grids for dc power distribution. The above proposed concept works on dual active phase shift principle and square wave HF modulation technique for bidirectional power transfer. Compared to the traditional dc transformer scheme, The proposed power electronic transformer (PET) can disconnect from LVDC distribution grid effectively as a dc breaker when a short circuit fault occurs in the distribution grid. The isolated DC-DC PET topology with a wide range of voltage conversion ratio is useful for High Voltage DC tapping. The DAB based on switched capacitor is connected to the medium voltage DC side and acts as an inverter. The proposed topology has the ability to transfer higher power, and lower circulating power, lower high frequency link voltage, and RMS current and peak values with the same transmission power in the MVDC side. This paper analyzes the topology, voltage and power characterization, control strategy in detail. Increase in the intermediate AC frequency will reduce the size of the transformer and other passive elements significantly in the circuit. The theoretical analysis is supported by MATLAB simulation.