A 4000-A HVDC (high-voltage direct-current) circuit breaker with fast fault-clearing capability: Final report

Technical Report · Fri Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 1988

OSTI ID:7165106

This project is a follow-up of the first development of a 500 kV HVDC airblast circuit breaker (EPRI project 1507-3). The objective was to increase the current interrupting capability from 2200 A to 4000 A and shorten its fault clearing time. A high current 500 kV HVDC circuit breaker has been built using the passive commutation circuit. The breaker is modular in construction and can be designed for a wide variety of system conditions. More than 400 current interruptions were carried out successfully. Tests have shown that this circuit breaker is capable of interrupting more than 4000 A dc. Practical breakers with current interrupting capability of even 5500 A dc could be built. The circuit breaker operation and the fault-clearing process can be materially speeded up if the trip signal is given as soon as the fault is detected and without waiting for the current levels to come down in response to converter control action. The new dc breakers are shown to be capable of withstanding these transient arc currents of 8000 A without affecting its ability to interrupt the direct current that follows the transient. This transient current withstand capability is greater than is likely to occur during dc faults. The fault clearing time of this HVDC circuit breaker is comparable to the fault clearing time of conventional ac breakers for ac faults. The developed HVDC circuit breaker is now commercially available and can be supplied for use in HVDC systems. Its use in such systems is expected to provide flexibility in system design and contribute to system stability. 38 refs., 52 figs., 9 tabs.

• Research Organization: BBC Brown Boveri, Inc., North Brunswick, NJ (USA)
• OSTI ID: 7165106
• Report Number(s): EPRI-EL-5668; ON: TI88009293
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
HVDC SYSTEMS
CIRCUIT BREAKERS
DESIGN
ELECTRICAL FAULTS
ELECTRICAL TRANSIENTS
TESTING
DC SYSTEMS
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
ENERGY SYSTEMS
EQUIPMENT
EQUIPMENT PROTECTION DEVICES
POWER SYSTEMS
TRANSIENTS
VOLTAGE DROP
200302* - Power Transmission & Distribution- DC Systems- (1989-)