Novel Bidirectional DC Solid-State Circuit Breaker With Operating Duty Capability

Abstract

DC microgrids have received remarkable interest in both the academia and the industry for over a decade, yet the protection of dc microgrids remains as a major challenge. This challenge is rooted in the nonexistence of natural zero-crossing point in dc microgrids which rapidly increase the fault current. In this article, a novel bidirectional dc solid-state circuit breaker (dc SSCB) to reinforce the bidirectional flow of energy which significantly boosts the overall efficiency of the power supply of dc microgrids is presented. The proposed topology can perform the operating duty of reclosing and rebreaking, and the commutation capacitor is charged and recharged naturally without any complex control of the main or auxiliary thyristors, which is considered atypical of existing topologies. A clear and detailed analysis of the operation of the proposed topology is presented. Finally, the experimental results are presented to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed novel bidirectional dc SSCB.