Technical Application Papers

The waveform of the AC current Iac1 (Figure 3.58) does Since the steady state value of Vdc is not constant, there
not change with respect to the no-fault condition (even is a high current flowing through the DC capacitors.
3 Fault analysis

if there is a DC component superimposed in each phase

and equal to Ig/3 = 8/3 = 2.7A), since the FEC still works
Figure 3.60 – Trend of the DC capacitors current Icap during a ground
in linear modulation. fault on DC side in systems with the neutral point of the MV/LV transformer
grounded without ESS and PV plant and with Rg = 50 mΩ
Figure 3.58 – Trend of Iac1 current during a ground fault on DC side in
systems with the neutral point of the MV/LV transformer grounded without 2500
ESS and PV plant and with Rg = 50 Ω
2000
250

200 1500

150
1000
100

Icap [A]
500
50
Iac1 [A]

0 0

-50
-500
-100
-1000
-150 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
t [s]
-200

-250
0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55
t [s]
0.6
3.2.1.2 Low fault resistance Rg without ESS and terminals (Figures 3.61-3.62).
PV plant (S1=ON, S2=ON/OFF)
The decreasing values of the fault resistance Rg cause
voltage variations on the DC-Bus and give rise to a
gradual loss of control by the converter.
As the Rg decreases, the earth fault current Ig has a higher
and higher DC component and Ig reaches such values
that the use of protective devices is anyway required.
In particular, e.g. with Rg = 50 mΩ, the FEC behaves like
a diode rectifier (Vdc < 1.35 ∙ √3 ∙ V1 as in Figure 3.59):
it works for longer and longer fractions of time in an ir-
regular way, i.e. bypassing the controlled semiconductors
(fault current flows in freewheeling diodes).
As we can see in Figure 3.59, as soon as the fault occurs
(t = 0.5 s), Vdc decreases discharging the DC capacitors
(Figure 3.60) and reaching the steady state value, which
guarantees a limited power delivery to the DC load.
The DC capacitor discharge current comes from the FEC
0.65 lower terminal; as a result, the converter, during the fault
transient, supplies a positive current flowing out of both
This behavior corresponds to an abnormal FEC opera-
tion, since during normal operation current flows out of
the upper terminal and into the lower one (Figures 3.61-
3.62 before the fault).
The sum of the current from the upper terminal and of the
current flowing through the capacitors makes the ground
fault current Ig (minus the load current).
Figure 3.61 – Trend of the upper terminal current Iconvdc1 during a ground
fault on DC side in systems with the neutral point of the MV/LV transformer
grounded without ESS and PV plant and with Rg = 50 mΩ
2500
2000
1500
1000
Iconvdc1 [A]

Figure 3.59 – Trend of Vdc voltage during a ground fault on DC side in

systems with the neutral point of the MV/LV transformer grounded without
ESS and PV plant and with Rg = 50 mΩ 500

900
0
800 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
t [s]
700
Vdc [V]

600

500

400

300

200

100
0
0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
t [s]

30 Faults in LVDC microgrids with front-end converters