2022 IEEE 2nd International Conference on Sustainable Energy and Future Electric Transportation, 04-06 August 2022, Hyderabad

Protection of DC Bus using Solid-State DC

2022 IEEE 2nd International Conference on Sustainable Energy and Future Electric Transportation (SeFeT) | 978-1-6654-8057-4/22/$31.00 ©2022 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/SeFeT55524.2022.9909364

Breaker
A. Jaya Laxmi
Eswaraiah G Professor & Head,
Research Scholar, Department of Electrical & Electronics
Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering,
Engineering, JNTUH College of Engineering,
JNTUH College of Engineering, Hyderabad. Hyderabad.
[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract: In this contemporary era, DC micro grids are this paper is on SSCB suitable for voltages under 1
become trendy. DC micro grids have numerous KV DC. For instance, Fig. 1 shows the structure of a
advantages as well as disadvantages. One of the main DC micro grid. There are various applications of DC
drawbacks of DC micro grid is short-circuiting protection; power such as in industries, commercial and
it has become a challenging issue because of the high rise residential buildings, and increasing no. of electronic
rate the fault current. Electro-mechanical switches are loads, such as IT equipment, LED lighting and
very slow which cannot control the short circuit faults adjustable speed motor drives. The DC micro grids at
resulting in over dimensioning of the system. Power any voltage level faces many technical challenges,
electronic circuit breakers have the ability to interrupt particularly, short-circuit protection. [4]-[8]The
high magnitude of fault currents. This paper introduces a problem with fault currents is that they do not have a
new concept of Bi-directional Short-Circuit Current
natural zero crossing like in AC systems. Another
problem is that DC cables have low impedances
Blocker based on Solid-State Circuit Breaker (SSCB).
which lead to high rate of current rise when the
The new Solid-State circuit Breaker detects the short-
system is prone to short-circuit faults. The power
circuit faults by using Current Differential Protection
electronic circuit breaker can be operated for a short
strategy. The SSCB can be directly placed in series with
time and versatile operating modes when compared
the DC Bus without disturbing the normal circuit.
to typical Mechanical switch. Power electronic
Finally, the performance of the blocking circuit is devices are the optimal solution to short-circuit faults.
simulated and results are verified. The results clearly The power electronic circuit breakers are divided into
show that, by using SSCB short-circuit fault current is two types based on their working principles. They are
blocked within 4 ms. The SSCB gives better results than Solid-State Circuit Breakers (SSCB) and hybrid
any other protection mechanism developed until now and circuit breakers. When fault occurs, SSCB isolates
has many benefits such as reclosing, bi-directional the short-circuit current with power electronic switch
blocking and energy releasing functions. SSCB can be and during the normal operation, minimizes power
used numerous times and the best solution for short- loss with the help of a mechanical switch. Hybrid
circuit faults. circuit breakers are generally not employed in DC
micro grids because of its complicated design and
Keywords: DC micro-grid, DC bus protection, circuit problem in finding an exact short-circuit current zero-
breaker crossing point.

1. INTRODUCTION In order to find a solution to short-circuit faults, a

new structure of a Bi-directional Short-Circuit
Nowadays, DC micro grids are currently a upcoming
Current Blocker (BSCCB) based on a solid-state
research topic, because micro grids have several
advantages when compared with AC micro grids circuit breaker is proposed, which has faster speed,
such as integration of Distributed Energy Resources bi-directional blocking and reclosing functions. This
(DER) and local loads, environmental friendly, low structure can rapidly clear the short-circuit current in
conversion AC-DC stages.[1]-[3] DERs include fuel the main circuit. The new bi-directional short- circuit
cells, wind energy systems, solar power and diesel current blocker does no need any external power
generators. Generally, DC micro grids are operated supply to charge the capacitor.
under 1KV DC supply. Therefore, the main focus of

978-1-6654-8057-4/22/$31.00 ©2022 IEEE

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 Figure 1: Block Diagram of a DC micro grid [1]
Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBT’s) coupled
II WORKING PRINCIPLE OF A BI- in reverse series (Q1, Q2), two Silicon Controlled
DIRECTIONAL SHORT-CIRCUIT CURRENT Rectifiers (SCR’s) linked in reverse parallel (T1, T2),
BLOCKER a blocking capacitor C, TRIAC and an energy release
resistor Reo. [9]-[12]Because blocking capacitor C
A Bi-directional Solid-State Circuit Breaker is
can be charged in both directions. The BSCCB can
connected in series with the DC Bus to protect the
detect and block fault currents in both directions. The
DC bus from the short-circuit faults. It has two
structure of BSCCB is given in Figure.2

Figure 2: Structure of a BSCCB

A detailed analysis and working principle of BSCCB value of the line is Io, and Figure 4a shows the
is explained in five modes. The current flow path current flow path in this mode.
during these five modes is shown in figure 3 and 4.

A. NORMAL OPERATING MODE (t < t0) B. BLOCKING CAPACITOR CHARGING STAGE

(t0 ≤ t < t1)
In normal operating mode shown in Fig.3 (a), control
Fig.3 (b) shows the capacitor charging mode. If the
signals of Q1 and Q2 are high level, while the
difference between both ends of the line current is
remaining T1, T2 and TRIAC control signals are at
high, BSCCB sends the signals to turn off Q1 and Q2,
low level. BSCCB is connected in series with the DC
while switching on T1 at the same time. The fault
bus, rated current flows through the IGBT and
current is sent to the blocking branch, where it
reverse parallel diode. The conduction voltage drop
charges the capacitor C. Because of the parasitic
of IGBT and diode is very less; therefore BSCCB
inductance in the external circuit, the fault current
has low impedance and does not interfere with the
drastically increases to peak before it reaches to zero
normal operation of other components. The current
at time t1. This is the charging stage of the blocking

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 capacitor; the current flow path in this stage is shown
in Figure 4b.
C. FAULT-CURRENT BLOCKED STAGE (t1 ≤ t
< t2)
Fig.3(c) shows the fault line is broken by BSCCB,
when the capacitor C completely absorbs the fault
current. The current through T1 will be dropped to
below the maintenance current IH during the fault
current blocking phase, T1 is switched off
automatically, and capacitor C is not discharged to
the external circuit due to decrease in the fault
current. The circuit operation in this stage is shown
in Figure 4c.
D. RECLOSING STAGE (t2 ≤ t < t3)
In this stage shows in the Fig.3 (d) circuit breaker
comes to its usual working mode, and its only
function is to turn on Q1 and Q2. The energy Figure 4: Current waveform of BSCCB in various modes.
accumulated in capacitor C is not discharged until
this operation is completed. If the input voltage is III. CONTROL STRATEGY OF PROPOSED
clamped, the capacitor voltage cannot be decreased BSCCB DIFFERENTIAL PROTECTION
to zero and the fault current is not completely STRATEGY
absorbed whenever the fault occurs next time.
Voltage measurements and it takes only current
(v) DUMP ENERGY RELEASING STAGE (t3 ≤ t measurements.Fig.5 shows current differential
< t4) protection scheme In current differential protection
In this stage shows in Fig.3 (d) TRIAC is turned on strategy, differential[13]-[15] current Id is calculated
after the reclosing stage. During this time, capacitor by subtracting both ends of the protected line
voltage is decreased from constant value to zero. currents, i.e., IF and IR. If the value of Id is greater
Both Q1, Q2 and TRIAC are turned on in this stage, than the Ker*Is specified in the comparator1, a signal
however their operation do not interact with each is sent to AND gate and if either end of the line
other. The energy accumulated in capacitance C is current is greater than the reference value set in the
released in the form of thermal energy on resistor comparator 2\3 then a signal is send to the AND gate.
Re. Because TRIAC can be operated bi- During the fault condition, both the inputs of the
directionally, therefore capacitor C can be AND gate are high, then a driving signal will be
discharged in both directions. Figure 4d depicts the generated to control turn ‘ON’ and turn ‘OFF’ the
current flow direction. switches. The following are the differential protection
boundary conditions:

I d
= I F
− I R

I d
> K er
*I s
(1)
I F
> I ref

I R
> I ref

Id is the differential protection current; Ker is the

Figure 3: Current flow path of BSCCB a) Normal Operating Mode
b) Capacitor Charging Mode c) Fault- Current Blocked Mode d)
sensitivity coefficient; Iref is the base value of
Reclosing Stage and Dump Energy Releasing Stage. differential protection current to avoid wrong action;
Is is the differential threshold current set up value
according to the rise rate of the fault current to the
protected line. Current differential protection system is

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 implemented if and only if all the boundary
conditions are satisfied.

I F

K *I
I R
er s

I ref

I ref

Figure 5: Current Differential Protection Strategy.

TABLE 1: SHOWS 5 STAGES OF SWITCH MODES.

Switch/ mode Q1/q2 T1/t2 Triac

Normal
On Off Off
Mode
Fault current
Off Off Off
Blocking

Capacitor charging mode Off On Off

Reclosing
On Off Off
Mode
Energy release
DC Micro grid is established in Disaster Management
On Off On lab located in the Department of Electrical and
Mode
Electronics Engineering, JNTUH Campus,
Hyderabad. In this micro grid, sources are solar
IV SIMULATION RESULTS supplying 1KW, battery 48V and grid supplying
230V. 3 distribution feeders are available with 1 feeder
having 3 loads. To verify the effectiveness of
proposed BSCCB simulation and experimental
results were carried out by considering the following
values.
Consider the following values.
Energy Release Resistance Re = 100 ohms.
Capacitance C = 0.4 mF.
Equivalent Inductance of the line L = 5 mH.
Equivalent Resistance of the line R = 0.1ohms.
Time for capacitor charging tm = 4ms.
Transport Delay = 0.1sec.
Iref =100A
Id = 4000A

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 ‘OFF’ the switches.

Figure 7: Waveform of input voltage and current.

The waveforms of input voltage and current are shown Figure 9: Waveform of output voltage and current.
in Figure 7. When a fault occurs, input voltage
fluctuates and drops down to zero in 4ms, so the The waveform of output voltage and current are
DERs, energy storage devices, loads connected to the shown in figure 9. In normal operating mode, voltage
DC bus, are not affected. During this time input is maintained at normal level. During the fault
current reaches to maximum value and drops down to condition voltage is dropped down to zero. It is shown
zero within 4ms. This shows that BSCCB can in the Figure 8, 9 shows the waveforms of input and
successfully clear the fault current in 4 ms and output currents are nearly the same. The output
protects the devices. Here transport delay is 0.1sec, voltage drops to zero after zero-crossing increases,
so reclosing operation is done at 0.3 sec, input which is caused by the instantaneous oscillation of
voltage and current returns to normal level by 0.3 sec. inductance L load and capacitor C. When capacitor C
This shows that new BSCCB can clear the fault is fully charged, the voltage on inductance load will
rapidly when compared to any other existing not oscillate and attenuate to zero, which means that
protection devices. the load side and the supply side are successfully
isolated.

Figure 10: Waveform of Capacitor Voltage and TRIAC

current
Figure 8: Waveform of both ends of the line current and their
The waveforms of capacitor is charging in
difference current.
Blocking Capacitor Charging Stage and
During the fault condition, one end of the line discharging in Dump Energy Releasing Stage and
current drastically increases to above 4000A and the TRIAC current curves are shown in Figure 9.
other end of the line current drops down to zero. After the occurrence of short-circuit fault, capacitor
At this time, difference between both ends of the voltage rapidly reaches to 60 V at 204 ms, which is
line current is greater than 4000 A. Then a signal the maximum value of capacitor voltage. Since the
is sent from the AND gate to turn ‘ON’ and turn reclosing time of the simulation circuit is 0.3 sec, so

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 the capacitor voltage starts to discharge at 0.3 sec. It restoration based on intentional islanding algorithm for
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