DC Circuit Breaker Using Superconductor for Current Limiting

The unavailability of high-capacity HVdc circuit breakers (CBs) is one of the key stoppers for building HVdc multi-terminal networks. As the dc does not have a natural current zero, its interruption is very different. The objective of this paper is to propose a new type of dc CB (DCCB), including a current-limiting part and an interrupting part, which can interrupt a high short-circuit current. Experimental results show that the current-limiting part containing superconductor tapes and parallel resistance can limit the fault current from 20 to 1 or 2 kA very quickly within 1 ms. The interrupting part using the self-oscillation method can break this limited current. Therefore, this type of DCCB has the ability of interrupting a high short-circuit current.