Arcless Current Interruption of DC 150A using a Hybrid DC Circuit Breaker Consisting of SiC-MOSFET and Metal Contacts K. Yasuoka, K. Nakayama, S. Kubo and S. Zen 2018/04/20

Abstract

DC circuit breakers (DCCBs) have received considerable attention due to the increasing demand for DC power transmission and distributed generation. Hybrid DCCBs that consist of mechanical switches, semiconductor devices, and metal-oxide varistor elements offer fast interruption and a low
contact resistance when the mechanical contact is closed. Although semiconductor devices in conventional hybrid DCCBs are turned on by arc voltage between the metal contacts, the contact voltage with a high melting-point material can turn on power devices without generating an arc discharge. The magnitude of the molten-bridge voltage of tungsten is sufficient to turn on metal –oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor devices under specific conditions. In this report, an arcless commutation of DC current is described by using two-pole tungsten contacts connected in series. Finally, we performed DC current (300 V–150 A) interruption and succeeded in obtaining
arcless current interruption with a probability of 100%. No erosion was observed after several interruptions of DC 150A.

Authors and affiliations

K. Yasuoka, K. Nakayama, S. Kubo and S. Zen
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology. Tokyo, (Japan)

Key words

Hybrid DC circuit breaker; Molten metal bridge; SiCMOSFET; Arcless commutation.

References

[1] R. M. Cuzner, G. Venkataramanam, “The status of DC microgrid protection,” IEEE Ind. Appli. Soc. Meeting, pp.1-8,
2008.
[2] I. M. Meyer and A. Rufer, “A DC Hybrid Circuit Breaker with Ultra-Fast Contact Opening and Integrated Gate-
Commutated Thyristors (IGCTs),” IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, vol. 21, pp. 646–651, 2006.
[3] M. Callavik, A. Blomberg, J. Häfner, B. Jacobson, “The Hybrid HVDC Breaker -An innovation breakthrough
enabling reliable HVDC grids,” ABB Grid Systems, Technical Paper, Nov., 2012.
[4] A. Hassanpoor, J. Hafner and B. Jacobson, “Technical Assessment of Load Commutation Switch in Hybrid HVDC
Breaker,” IEEE Trans. Power electronics, vol. 30, pp. 5393–5400, 2015.
[5] C. Peng, AQ. Huang and XQ. Song, “Current Commutation in A Medium Voltage Hybrid DC Circuit Breaker using 15
kV Vacuum Switch and SiC Devices,” Proc. 2015 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC), pp. 2244–2250, 2015.
[6] B. Yang, Y. Gao, X. Wei, Z. He, L. Chen, Y. Shan, “A Hybrid Circuit Breaker for DC-Application,” IEEE Int. Conf.
Microgrids (ICDCM), pp. 187–192, 2015.
[7] C. Meyer, M. Kowal, R.W. Decker. “Circuit breaker concept for future high-power DC applications,” IEEE-IAS
conference, v2:860-866.K, 2005.
[8] K. Yasuoka, Y. Tsuboi, T. Hayakawa, and N. Takeuchi, “Arcless Commutation of a Hybrid DC Breaker by Contact
voltage of Molten Metal Bridge,” IEEE Trans. CPMT, 2017 (Early Access)
[9] S. Zen, T. Hayakawa, K. Nakayama and K. Yasuoka, “Development of an Arcless DC Circuit Break using a
Mechanical Contact and a Semiconductor Device,” IEEE 63rd Holm Conference on Electrical Contacts, pp. 248-251,
2017.
[10] R. Holm, “Electric Contacts, 4th Edition,” New York: Springer-Verlag (1967).