Analysis and control of bridge-type fault current limiter integrated with the dynamic voltage restorer

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel bridge-type solid-state fault current limiter based on dynamic voltage restorer (BFCL-DVR). The new topology uses a DC-link in the back-to-back converter of DVR. The proposed BFCL-DVR is equivalent to the conventional DVR during normal operation mode. At fault inception, the controller deactivates the series converter IGBTs in faulty phase and activates the DC-link semiconductor switches, thus establishing an equivalent bridge-type current limiter to restrict the fault current. The magnitude of the fault current is adjustable by controlling the frequency and duty ratio of the semiconductor switch that is in parallel with the discharging resistance. Moreover, the device is able to quickly recover from the current limiting mode to the normal operation mode. In this study, the operation sequence, optimal value of discharging resistance, duty cycle, and frequency of semiconductor switches are obtained. The design methodology of the proposed BFCL-DVR is fully verified using PSCAD/EMTDC software. Experimental results validate the proposed topology and theoretical analysis.