Comparative Performance Analysis of Active- and Resistive-Type SFCL in Reducing the Fault Current

Abstract

Nowadays, an efficient alternative to expensive enhancement of protective equipment is superconducting fault current limiters (SFCLs), which provide economic remedies to intercept the existing protective devices in the power system from being severely affected by excessive currents. In this paper, resistive- and active-type SFCLs are applied separately to reduce the fault current. The active SFCL is a combination of a transformer which is lossless (superconducting) and a voltage-controlled PWM converter. The converter equivalent impedance is controlled for current suppression, whereas the resistive-type SFCL will compare the fault current with the reference value and introduces some resistance based on the increase in temperature. Both resistive- and active-type SFCLs are designed in MATLAB and added into a test system of 100 MVA, 33 kV. The results presented show that active SFCL reduces more fault current in comparison with the resistive SFCL in the considered network.