TY - JOUR
T1 - Decentralized plug-and-play protection scheme for low voltage DC grids
AU - van der Blij, Nils H.
AU - Purgat, Pavel
AU - Soeiro, Thiago B.
AU - Ramirez-Elizondo, Laura M.
AU - Spaan, Matthijs T.J.
AU - Bauer, Pavol
N1 - Funding Information:
This project has received funding in the framework of the joint programming initiative ERA-Net Smart Grids Plus, with support from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
Funding Information:
Funding: This project has received funding in the framework of the joint programming initiative ERA-Net Smart Grids Plus, with support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the author.
PY - 2020/6
Y1 - 2020/6
N2 - Since the voltages and currents in dc grids do not have a natural zero-crossing, the protection of these grids is more challenging than the protection of conventional ac grids. Literature presents several unit and non-unit protection schemes that rely on communication, or knowledge about the system's topology and parameters in order to achieve selective protection in these grids. However, communication complicates fast fault detection and interruption, and a system's parameters are subject to uncertainty and change. This paper demonstrates that, in low voltage dc grids, faults propagate fast through the grid and interrupted inductive currents commutate to non-faulted sections of the grid, which both can cause circuit breakers in non-faulted sections to trip. A decentralized plug-and-play protection scheme is proposed that ensures selectivity via an augmented solid-state circuit breaker topology and by utilizing the proposed time-current characteristic. It is experimentally shown that the proposed scheme provides secure and selective fault interruption for radial and meshed low voltage dc grids under various conditions.
AB - Since the voltages and currents in dc grids do not have a natural zero-crossing, the protection of these grids is more challenging than the protection of conventional ac grids. Literature presents several unit and non-unit protection schemes that rely on communication, or knowledge about the system's topology and parameters in order to achieve selective protection in these grids. However, communication complicates fast fault detection and interruption, and a system's parameters are subject to uncertainty and change. This paper demonstrates that, in low voltage dc grids, faults propagate fast through the grid and interrupted inductive currents commutate to non-faulted sections of the grid, which both can cause circuit breakers in non-faulted sections to trip. A decentralized plug-and-play protection scheme is proposed that ensures selectivity via an augmented solid-state circuit breaker topology and by utilizing the proposed time-current characteristic. It is experimentally shown that the proposed scheme provides secure and selective fault interruption for radial and meshed low voltage dc grids under various conditions.
KW - Decentralized protection scheme
KW - Fault analysis
KW - Low voltage direct current grids
KW - Plug-and-play systems
KW - Solid-state circuit breakers
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85090804290&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/en13123167
DO - 10.3390/en13123167
M3 - Article
SN - 1996-1073
VL - 13
JO - Energies
JF - Energies
IS - 12
M1 - 3167
ER -