Low-Voltage Dc Testbed Design for a Z-Source breaker based protection Scheme

The need to develop a protection scheme has been one of the main focus points of recent research in dc grid technology. Z-source breakers are a relatively new invention in this field. Considerable research on the z-source breaker has been focused on its optimum design rather than control. In a single load / single source system these breakers do not need a complicated control. Recently a control scheme has been proposed for z-source breakers in an MVDC ring architecture with multiple loads and sources. This paper discusses design of a low-voltage dc system that can be used as a testbed for that z-source breaker protection scheme. For ease of implementation, the construction of this system has been broken down into three stages. During each stage a different aspect of the system and the breaker's performance will be observed and tested. Also, a prototype enclosure for z-source breaker is designed and initial testing results are presented. The breaker box has been assembled in a very generic way so it can be installed into any test bed with similar power levels. The control scheme requires all the breakers to communicate with a central control. This paper discusses some processing and communication solutions for the small range lab environment and proposes a scheme for setting up that network.