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New Simple-Structured AC Solid-State

Circuit Breaker

Presented by
Joel P Joji
 INTRODUCTION 2
 Recently, distributed generators and sensitive loads have been
widespread used.

 For them to work perfectly power quality is an issue.

 Solid-state circuit breaker (SSCB) an imperative device to get

acceptable power quality of AC power grid systems.

 Medium Voltage device.

 LITERATURE REVIEW
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 SCR is very suitable for implementation of SSCB because of
relatively low conduction loss compared with other
switching devices .

 Theexisting AC SSCB requires some auxiliary mechanical

devices to achieve the reclosing operation before fault
recovery.

 IEEE Standards C37.09 requires the operating duty of circuit

breaker that it should be capable of repeatedly performing
the reclosing and rebreaking operations .
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 The
fast circuit breakers include hybrid circuit breakers and
SSCBs.

 Hybrid circuit breaker uses mechanical switches ,therefore is

slower than the SSCB and cannot quickly break the fault
current.
 In the case of short-duration faults resulting from trees 5
or strong wind, the power grid must be capable of
supplying electric power to real loads by fast breaking.

 Fast breaking and rebreaking action is required for

reduction of electrical and economical losses.

 Previous SSCB can’t carry out fast reclosing and

rebreaking operations.
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 In the previous model,in case of sustained load-side
short faults, the commutation capacitors cannot be
charged, thus making practically impossible the
reclosing and rebreaking operations.

 Another type of SSCB when working under 3-phase

power source with neutral point grounded system,
requires complex thyristor control to charge the
commutation capacitors when a line to ground fault
occurs.
 New AC SSCB can achieve a quick breaking operation and 7
then be reclosed with no auxiliary mechanical devices or
complex control .

 Underfault conditions proposed SSCB can simply charge the

commutation capacitor for next rebreaking without any
complex control of the main thyristors and auxiliary ones.
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NEW AC SOLID-STATE CIRCUIT
BREAKER
 For the purpose of confirming the overall features of the
proposed SSCB, the three-phase short circuit fault with
the largest fault current value as the worst-case one is
explained.
 Both the capacitors C1 and C2 can be charged naturally
by line to line voltage without passing through the SCR
unlike previous models.
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A. Charging Mode(t0 ≤ t ≤ t5) 10

 All commutation capacitors should be charged

before fault occurrence so that SSCB may break
the fault by discharging the capacitors and
triggering off the thyristors
 Voltage level of the capacitor is set with help of
line voltage and varistor.
 The charging resistors limits the charging current
so that commutation capacitor is not overcharged.
 Here charging resistor selected as 5Ω.
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 At t0 , as the line switch (ls) is turned

on, the charging of the commutation
capacitor begins. at t0-t1 in fig. 4, the
commutation capacitor c11, c12 and
c32 are charged fully depending on
the phase sequence of line voltage.

 since all the commutation capacitors

are charged through the charging loop
composed of resistor, diode and
capacitor without any SCR involved,
SSCB does not require any special
switching operation for charging the
commutation capacitors.
B. Normal Mode t5 ≤ t ≤ t6 12

 This is the steady-state normal

operation mode to supply the electric
power to the load side as shown in
circuit B of Fig. 3.
 For that purpose all the SCR Tall (T11,
T12, T21, T22, T31, T32) are being
turned on.
 Current passes through least resistive
path.
C. Normal Mode (short circuit fault :t6 ≤ t ≤ t7) 13
 Here fault current starts to rise quickly
because 3-phase short fault takes
place at t6.
 Even if a short circuit fault has
already taken place, the SSCB keeps
operating in normal mode because
fault current has not reached preset
value.
 When a-phase current gradually rises
up to be the same as the preset value,
SSCB begins to interrupt the short
circuit fault at t7, thus initiating
breaking mode.
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D.Breaking Mode (t7≤ t≤ t8) 15

 At this mode the fault current is interrupted like the circuit D of Fig. 3.
 Fault curent of 500A flows through main SCR
 When the auxiliary SCRs S11, S22, and S32 are turned on dependent
upon the direction of the corresponding phase current, their
corresponding main SCRs T11, T22, and T32 are turned off by means of
the pre-charged voltage of the capacitors C11, C22, and C32.
 Subsequently the fault currents flows through Rl, Ll, and C in each phase
 also the discharged capacitors C11, C22, or C32 are reversely charged
for fault current interruption like waveform VC of Fig. 4. Finally the
fault currents are broken.
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 The higher value of voltage in capacitor during
reverse charging process is due to the high
value of line inductance.

 In the normal charging procedure voltage across

the capacitor can be set via the varistor
therefore its having a comparatively lesser
value of voltge than the reverse charging time.
 Here line resistance and line inducatance are
measured to be 100 mΩ and 35 uH.
E. Breaking Mode (t8 ≤ t ≤ t9) 17

 At this mode the fault current is fully

interrupted. Thus at t8 in Fig. 4, all the SCR
of SSCB remain turned off. The
commutation capacitor was already
increased over the varistor voltage of the
corresponding varistor in charging mode,
and thus the commutation capacitors
perform discharging operation until t9.
F. Recharging Mode(t10 ≤ t ≤ t13) 18

 At this mode the commutation capacitors

discharged in the previous breaking mode are again
recharged.
 The recharging operations of capacitors C11, C22,
and C32 (t8-t12) is performed in the state that all
the SCRs are turned off; that is, the new SSCB is
simply capable of recharging the commutation
capacitors without any thyristor control even in case
of the load-side short circuit.
 When the recharging mode is fully finished, SSCB
may carry out a reclosing operation by firing on the
main SCRs because the new SSCB prepares for
rebreaking the fault current even in case of the load-
side short circuit fault.
G. Reclosing Mode ( t13 ≤ t ≤ t14) 19

 Reclosing mode is the section that all

the main SCRs
(T11,T12,T21,T22,T31,T32) are
turned on. The circuit breaker should
perform the pre-determined reclosing
operation according to the reclosing
schedule of the operation duty.
Therefore, despite of load-side short
circuit fault, all the main SCR should
be turned on. If the short-circuit fault
still lasts, the short fault current may
flow like Fig. 3-G.
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H. Rebreaking Mode(t14 ≤ t ≤ t15) 21

 As soon as the short-circuit fault is detected at

t14, the rebreaking operation of SSCB begins.

 the auxiliary SCR S12, S21 and S32 are turned

on. The principle of this rebreaking operation is
the same as that of the breaking mode (t7~t9).
I. Recharging Mode(t15 ≤ t ≤ t16) 22

 The recharging operation of capacitors at

t15~t16 is similar to that at t10~t13. As the
capacitors C12, C21 and C32 are used in
the rebreaking process, they are recharged
again. When the recharging of capacitors is
completed, the AC SSCB can again carry
out the reclosing operation according to the
operation duty.
EXPERIMENT RESULTS 23
 Fig. 15(a) shows the prototype view of the
proposed SSCB.
 Each layer has a circuit corresponding to each
phase and the uppermost layer has a control
section.
 Fig. 15(b) shows the a-phase circuit of the
proposed SSCB.
 The top side contains a heatsink with two main
SCR. The bottom side includes two commutation
capacitors, two auxiliary SCR, diode, and four gate
drivers.
Fig. 15. (a) Full view of the proposed AC SSCB,
 The operating features of the proposed SSCB are
and (b) A phase circuit of proposed SSCB. confirmed under the 3-phase short circuit fault
condition.
 Table I shows the design system parameter and specification of the prototype of
proposed SSCB. 24
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 The number of components of proposed

SSCB and previous SSCB is almost the
same.
 the varistor rating of the proposed SSCB
can be lower than that of the previous
SSCB, resulting in cheaper cost.
 Furthermore the commutation capacitors
of the proposed SSCB are naturally
charged without complex switching
operation.
 As a result the reliability of the proposed
AC SSCB is relatively high.
 Advantages Disadvantages 26
 No arcing and  Complex working
switchbounce compared to traditional
 No corresponding wear CB’s
and tear  Expensive
 Longer life
 Higher reliability
 Switches in micro seconds
Applications 27

Military Avionics

Industrial Automation

Electric Vehicles
CONCLUSIONS 28
 The new AC SSCB can carry the reclosing and rebreaking
operation only with a few additional devices.

 Naturallycharges the commutation capacitors without any

complex control of the main thyristors and auxiliary ones

 The proposed AC SSCB can be applied regardless of the

neutral-point grounded method of 3-phase power source.

 Proposed AC SSCB is useful in order to realize the high

power quality systems.
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Thank you