Abstract
Low voltage direct current (LVDC) distribution has gained the significant interest of research due to the advancements in power conversion technologies. However, the use of converters has given rise to several technical issues regarding their protections and controls of such devices under faulty conditions. Post-fault behaviour of converter-fed LVDC system involves both active converter control and passive circuit transient of similar time scale, which makes the protection for LVDC distribution significantly different and more challenging than low voltage AC. These protection and operational issues have handicapped the practical applications of DC distribution. This paper presents state-of-the-art protection schemes developed for DC Microgrids. With a close look at practical limitations such as the dependency on modelling accuracy, requirement on communications and so forth, a comprehensive evaluation is carried out on those system approaches in terms of system configurations, fault detection, location, isolation and restoration.
Highlights
Growing concern for climate change and carbon emissions has directed the research focus towards the development and integration of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) to reduce fossil fuel usage and to enhance future energy sustainability.The EU’s framework plans to cut carbon emissions to 80–95% by 2050 and proposed to accomplish at least 27% renewable energy usage by 2030 [1]
This paper demonstrated and investigated the current status of research on the implementation of protection scheme in Low voltage direct current (LVDC) distribution system
Since power electronics devices are highly vulnerable to over-nominal transients, a DC fault may lead to severe damages to the converter in a very short period of time
Summary
Growing concern for climate change and carbon emissions (such as, EU’s plan for low-carbon economy by 2050 [1,2]) has directed the research focus towards the development and integration of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) to reduce fossil fuel usage and to enhance future energy sustainability. The integration of renewable energy technologies into conventional power system is one of the main challenges to extract the maximum benefits from such technologies This results in the evolution of the concept of smart grids to reduce operational cost, enhance efficiency and improve the resilience of power networks. Exponential growth in the development of renewable energy resources (RES), energy storage systems (ESS) and electric vehicle infrastructure, led to the concept of distributing DC power at low voltage level, known as LVDC Microgrids [5]. Despite the fact of their extra benefits (such as reduced conversion stages, less losses, cost effectiveness, higher energy efficiency and so forth [8]), the development of an effective and economical protection scheme for a DC system with bidirectional power flow is still a bottleneck for DC Microgrids implementations.
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