A Novel Solid-State Fault Current Limiter Based on AC and DC Reactors for Using in Microgrids

This paper proposes a novel solid-state fault current limiter (SSFCL) based on AC and DC reactors for limiting the fault current in AC microgrids (AMGs). It is designed to minimize the current stress and the number of power electronic switches. Also, it includes a low inductance and current rating DC reactor (DCR) to suppress the transient raising fault current at fault inception time and a high impedance AC reactor (ACR) to limit the fault current magnitude during fault. The power circuit, principle operating and control system of proposed SSFCL are presented. Then comprehensive evaluation of the proposed SSFCL is investigated and its performance is compared to the conventional DC reactor based and bridge-type FCLs under different fault condition. Simulation results show that the proposed SSFCL provides an effective measure to limit the fault current and has superior performance compared to the conventional schemes of bridge-type FCLs. Simulations are performed in PSCAD/EMTDC software.