Technical Application Papers

The ESS thus plays a key role in allowing reclosure of Figure 3.82 shows the current flowing in the filter capaci-
the DC component coming out of the negative terminal tance Cdc: it can be noted that, even if the ESS keeps Vdc
3 Fault analysis

of the FEC. high, a considerable ripple current flows in the capacitors,

This is an extremely important fact, because, due to the which may then be damaged7.
lack of grounding of the storage system, its presence is
Figure 3.82 – Trend of the DC capacitor current Icap during a ground fault
usually neglected in a first approximation calculation of on DC side in systems with the neutral point of the MV/LV transformer
Ig in case of a ground fault of a single pole. grounded with ESS and Rg = 50 mΩ
With reference to the path of Ig as shown in Figure 3.79 2000
and Rg = 50 mΩ, the DC component of Ig (Figure 3.80)
1500
is still given by:
1000
= 1+ 2 = 1572 + 1193 = 2765 [3.12]
500

Icap [A]
but now the DC component of Iconvdc2 is positive, as shown
in Figure 3.78. 0

-500

Figure 3.80 – Trend of Ig during a ground fault on DC side in systems with

-1000
the neutral point of the MV/LV transformer grounded with ESS and
Rg = 50 mΩ
-1500
3000 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
t [s]

2500
As shown in Figure 3.83, depending on the value of Rg,
2000 Iac1 may be completely positive, and all the AC component
Ig [A]

absorbed by the converter feeds the fault.

1500

1000
Figure 3.83 – Trend of Iac1 current during a ground fault on DC side in
systems with the neutral point of the MV/LV transformer grounded with
500
ESS and Rg = 50 mΩ

0 1200
0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
t [s] 1000

800
The DC component of current fed by the ESS Idc1 (Figure
3.81) now results from the sum of fault contribution Iconvdc2 600
Iac1 [A]

and the DC load current, which shows that all load current 400

is generated by the ESS, while current from the converter 200

flows into the ground fault: 0
548
1 = + 2 = 7.1
+ 1193 = 1270 [3.13] -200

-400
Figure 3.81 – Trend of Idc1 during a ground fault on DC side in systems 0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65
t [s]
with the neutral point of the MV/LV transformer grounded with ESS and
Rg = 50 mΩ

1400

1200

1000

800
Idc1 [A]

600

400

200
7
The DC component is zero, since the areas under the positive Icap values are equal to
0 the areas under the negative values.
0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
t [s]

36 Faults in LVDC microgrids with front-end converters