MS/ M.

Phil Thesis

Design Interruption Process for HVDC

System using Vacuum circuit Breaker
Based on Artificial Current Zero

Name: Ali Raza

Student ID: MSEE-S15-009

Advisor : Engr. Waheed Aftab Khan

1
 STATUS OF THESIS

DESIGN INTERRUPTION PROCESS FOR HVDC

Title of thesis SYSTEM USING VACUUM CIRCUIT BREAKER
BASED ON ARTIFICIAL CURRENT ZERO

I Ali Raza

Hereby allow my thesis to be placed at the Information Resource Center (IRC) of

Superior University of Lahore (SUL) with the following conditions:

1. The thesis becomes the property of SUL.

2. The IRC of SUL may make copies of the thesis for academic purposes only.

3. This thesis is classified as

o Confidential

 Non-confidential

If this thesis is confidential, please state the reason:

Non confidential

________________________________________________________________________

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The contents of the thesis will remain confidential for ___________ years.

Remarks on disclosure:

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2
 Endorsed by

___________________________ __________________________
Signature of Author Signature of Supervisor

Permanent address: ________________ Name of Supervisor

956-B, Mumtazabad Multan Engr. Waheed Aftab Khan

Date: 1st February 2017 Date: 1st February 2017

3
 SUPERIOR UNIVERSITY OF LAHORE

Design Interruption Process for HVDC System using Vacuum circuit Breaker

Based on Artificial Current Zero

By

Ali Raza

The undersigned certify that they have read, and recommend to the Postgraduate Studies

Program for acceptance this thesis for the fulfillment of the requirements for the degree

stated.

Signature: ______________________________________

Main Supervisor: Engr. Waheed Aftab Khan

Signature: ______________________________________

Co-Supervisor: ______________________________________

Signature: ______________________________________

Head of Department: Engr. Adnan yousuf

Date: 1st February 2017

4
 DECLARATION OF THESIS

Design Interruption Process for HVDC System using

Title of thesis
Vacuum circuit Breaker Based on
Artificial Current Zero

I Ali Raza

Hereby declare that the thesis is based on my original work except for quotations and

citations which have been duly acknowledged. I also declare that it has not been

previously or concurrently submitted for any other degree at UTP or other institutions.

Witnessed by

_____________________ _____________________
Signature of Author Signature of Supervisor

Permanent address: ________________ Name of Supervisor

956-B, Mumtazabad Multan Engr. Waheed Aftab Khan

Date: 1st February 2017 Date: 1st February 2017

5
 DEDICATION

I would like to dedicate this thesis to my parents, brother and sisters.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all I praise and express my heartiest gratitude to the most merciful ALLAH

Who has given me the ability to write this thesis. Without His help it would have been

impossible to finish this project and compile this thesis.

I would like to express my deepest sense of gratitude and heartfelt thanks to my

supervisor, Lecturer Waheed Aftab khan for giving me opportunity to work on this

project, his guidance, encouragement and motivation throughout this project.

I have to especially thanks to C.E.O. of Sunvolts Dr.Aun Abbas and SUL friends,

housemates and colleagues, Raheel Zafar, Adeel Arshad, Sohail Abbas, Dildar Ali, who

always helped me during hard time in my candidature.

The author would also like to expresses his gratefulness to the beloved parents and

siblings whose patience and love have enabled the author to complete his M.Sc. studies in

SUL.

Thank you.

7
 Abstract
A trusted circuit breaker is a primary element for the protection of electrical system.
There are lots of circuit breakers and interruption schemes for high voltage alternating
current (HVAC). In contrary, it is difficult to design an interruption scheme for high
voltage direct current system (HVDC) because natural zero crossing of wave does not
exist. The demand of HVDC circuit breaker is critical with the evolution of distributed
system. Moreover, unfortunately there is no proper standard is present. Although some
schemes are present to interrupt the fault but some drawbacks are present in each scheme.
Solid state scheme is one of the fastest schemes as a protection purpose in HVDC but the
energy loss in this scheme is too high. In mechanical circuit breaker the tripping time is
poor from other schemes but there are some advantages also of mechanical technique.
The energy loss in mechanical circuit breaker technique has minimum from all other
techniques. Hybrid scheme is a combination of above two techniques. Hybrid scheme has
some good applications from previous techniques but hybrid technique has also
drawbacks. Mechanical circuit breaker scheme is chosen for this thesis to improve the
performance of mechanical circuit breaker in terms of interruption time and energy
absorption wise. In this thesis an interruption scheme is proposed for HVDC system using
vacuum circuit breaker (VCB) based on zero crossing creating through
electromechanically. The propose scheme consists of multiple modules connecting in
series containing varistors, VCB and RC snubber circuit. The commutation process is
achieved through commutation branch containing L&C connected through a switch S. An
inverse current is injected through commutation when fault occurs in a system to interrupt
the arcing process. This thesis is based on Simulation which is performed on MATLAB
and trying to invent better scheme from previous schemes and analyzed the results. A
back up circuit breaker is necessary to eliminate the residual current. Therefore further
study can be carried on how to eliminate the usage of fault current. Moreover
commutation process can also be improved by improving the parameters and using new
scheme for commutation process. Furthermore, there is a need to explore the counter
current frequency and heating loss due to trigger sphere gap in future.

8
 TABLE OF CONTENT

ABSTRACT .....................................................................................................................8

LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................... 10

LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................... 10

LIST OF ABBREVIATION…………………………………………………………...11

CHAPTER1: INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND........................................... 12

1.1 Introduction................................................................................................................12

1.2 Problem Statement.................................................................................................... 12

1.3 Scope and Limitations............................................................................................... 13

1.4 Background of Study ................................................................................................ 13

1.5 Objectives .................................................................................................................. 13

CHAPTER2: LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................................................... 14

2.1 Introduction............................................................................................................... 14

2.2 Types of Circuit Breakers ……..............................................................................,..18

2.3 Principle of VCB........................................................................................................19

CHAPTER 3 Researches METHODOLOGY...............................................................21

CHAPTER 4 Simulations................................................................................................23

4.1 Overview ................................................................................................................... 23

4.2 Selection of Parameters ………………................................................................... 23

4.3 Interruption process ………………….....................................................................24

CHAPTER 5: SIMULATION RESULTS……………………………………………26

CHAPTER 6 :CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK ............................................29

REFERENCES ..............................................................................................................30

9
LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1.1: Proposed Interruption Scheme................................................................... 16

Figure 2.1: Pure mechanical HVDC circuit breaker ................................................... 13

Figure 2.2: First Topology of Active Resonance Mechanical Circuit Breaker

[11]..................................................................................................................................... 13

Figure 2.3: Second Topology of Active Resonance Mechanical Circuit Breaker [11]

………………………………………………................................................................... 15

Figure 2.4: Zero current switching technique [15] ...................................................... 15

Figure 2.5: Zero Voltage switching technique [17] ...................................................... 16

Figure 2.6: 2.6 SS CB with surge arrestor [18] ……………………………................ 16

Figure 2.7: SS CB with freewheeling diode [18]………………………....................... 18

Figure 2.8: Structure diagram of VCB[31]……………………………………………19

Figure 2.9: The equivalent circuit of EMR [31]…………………………………….... 19

Figure 3.1: Schematic diagram of proposed scheme………………………………….22

Figure 5.1: Source Current.............................................................................................26

Figure 5.2: Commutation Current.................................................................................26

Figure 5.3: Commutation Voltage …………………….................................................27

Figure 5.4: Source Current with backup circuit breaker............................................27

Figure 5.5: Commutation Current with backup circuit breaker................................28

Figure 5.6: Commutation Voltage with backup circuit breaker ……........................28

LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.1: Scheme Parameters…...................................................................................31

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS:

HVDC High Voltage Direct Current

CSC Current Source Converter

VSC Voltage Source Converter

MTHVDC Multi Terminal High Voltage DC

SS Scheme Solid State Scheme

AZC Scheme Artificial Zero Crossing Scheme

VCB Vacuum Circuit Breaker

EMR Electro Magnetic Repulsion

11
 Chapter 1: Introduction and Background

1.1 Introduction:

The classical HVDC system relied on the point to point distribution technology. This
technology uses two terminal voltage systems. Current source converter technology
(CSC) based on two terminal voltage system. When there is a need of interconnection of
multiple transmission system than multiple HVDC transmission lines are needed. This
will cause to increase the transmission and operating cost. In CSC system complex filters
and further capacitors were required to remove the harmonics of alternating current (AC)
[1]. Moreover the flow of power was unidirectional. The reversal of polarity in this
technology was difficult while bidirectional flow of power is the essential part of modern
distribution system [1, 2].The evolution of HVDC system transmission technology
intensifies with extensive utilization of power electronic devices. The solution of this
problem is to use multiple terminal high voltage dc (MTHVDC) technology. Voltage
source converter (VSC) technology can be utilized in MTHVDC transmission system.
The design of VSC is based on the Insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBT). Voltage and
power in the VSC technology are controllable. Active and reactive power can increase or
decrease independently. There is high frequency harmonics in VSC technology, therefore
the size of filters are less than CSC system [1, 2]. VSC system transmits active power. It
also can transmit reactive power at the sending and receiving end. VSC has some more
applications such as follows:
 Commutation failure can be avoided in the AC network.
 There is a possibility that VSC System can be connected to a weak AC network.
 It can also be used where no generating source is available.
 There is no need of transformer during commutation process in a fully controlled
power electronic system.
1.2 Problem Statement:
Moreover, In spite of many advantages, the rate of change of short circuit current is very
high because there is low inductance in the DC system [3, 4]. Therefore, there is a need of
reliable circuit breaker to interrupt the fault current in a certain time otherwise whole
system will have to shut down [5]. So, design of reliable interruption scheme is the main
issue. Nowadays, three interruption schemes are mostly used such as, solid state (SS) DC
interruption scheme; electromechanical scheme creates artificial zero crossing (AZC) of
current and lastly hybrid technique for interruption process. The propose
electromechanical HVDC technique is better in terms of energy loss and the propose
scheme has powerful interruption capability and also the propose scheme is low cost.
That’s why the propose scheme is centre of attraction. The research work is performed
utilizing this scheme in this present thesis.

12
The proposed scheme for DC interruption which is based AZC is shown in fig 1. There
are four branches in this scheme for interruption of fault, vacuum circuit breaker (VCB),
metal oxide varistors and commutation branch consists of pre charge capacitor C in series
with inductance L. In the occurrence of fault, VCB is opened first. When impulse of
current reaches a certain safe value then contacts of VCB gets open and switch S of
commutation branch is closed. High frequency arc is generated due to discharge of
commutation capacitor through the inductance and branch switch S. These high frequency
oscillations are overlapped on the VCB current. Thus, artificial zero crossing scheme
forces the arc which is produced due to VCB to quench. There is a high arc extinguish
ability of vacuum due to perfect insulation.
1.3 Scope and Limitations:
The branch circuit breaker is used to eliminate the effect of residual current. Commutation
branch perform bidirectional interruption process however commutation switch has very
low capability to quench the arc. This is the reason residual current continues to flow
from commutation switch.
1.4 Background of Study:
A significant research has been performed on HVDC circuit breakers. An important
development is attained by ABB. Modularized scheme is used by ABB for designing of
HVDC circuit breaker. Each module has 80KV capability. In this scheme mechanical
switch and ultra fast switch technique of power electronics is used. An experimental work
is carried out for verification of this scheme on 320KV with 2.6KA rated current [6]. Y.
Niwa and fellows have designed a dc circuit breaker using vacuum for arc quenching
purpose. Commutation is created by thyristor using as a switch. The rating of this breaker
is 1500KV with 100KA. It is tested on traffic power system railway track [7]. 3KV high
speed DC vacuum circuit breaker is designed by M. Batosik and fellows [8]. Shi et is
performed an experiment using triggering gap on voltage. In this scheme current was
stressed to attain zero limits at 30KA while the voltage level was about 3KV [9].
1.5 Objectives:
Artificial zero crossing scheme is proposed on the basis of previous research. This thesis
describes the modeling design and basic principle of interruption scheme. This thesis is
based on simulation which is performed in the MATLAB and results of simulation are
analyzed and parameters of commutation branch are carefully adjusted.
Back-up Circuit Breaker VCB VCB Back-up Circuit Breaker

MOV+Inductor MOV+Inductor

Communication Branch

Fig 1.1: Proposed Interruption Scheme

13
 Chapter 2: Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

2.1.1 Types of Circuit Breaker:

This chapter describes the different types of HVDC circuit breakers and also discusses the
functionality of topologies of HVDC protection system. As discuss in the previous
chapter, there are two categories of HVDC circuit breaker.
(i) current source circuit breaker (CSC)
(ii) voltage source circuit breaker (VSC)
On the basis of these types, three different topologies are designed;
(i) Pure Mechanical HVDC circuit breakers
(ii) Hybrid Circuit Breakers
(iii) Solid State (SS) Circuit Breakers

(i) Mechanical Circuit Breakers HVDC:

There are two types of mechanical circuit breakers
(A) Passive Resonance Circuit Breaker
(B) Active Resonance Circuit Breaker

A. Passive Resonance Circuit Breaker:

Passive resonance circuit breaker is too used to zero the current for quenching the arc at
lower current. This is an old scheme which was designed for CSC high voltage DC
system [10]. Block diagram of passive resonance circuit breaker is given in fig 2.1 [11].

Fig 2.1: Pure mechanical HVDC circuit breaker [11].

turned on then S gets open and current commutates through RC snubber circuit [17].
Capacitor size will decrease and interruption time will improve in this second topology.
This scheme can be unstable in certain conditions due to increase oscillation until current
comes to zero and arcing process is quenched. Capacitor is charging during the quenching
process. A non liner resistance is necessary to limit the voltage [12]. Interruption process
equation can be written in the form of differential eq.

14
 𝑑2𝑖𝑠 ʠ𝑢 𝑑𝑖𝑠 1 𝐼𝑜
𝐿𝑐 + 𝑅𝑐 + ʠ𝑖𝑠 + 𝐶𝑐 𝑖𝑠 = 𝐶𝑐 (3.1)
𝑑𝑡2 𝑑𝑡
In zero crossing method first zero crossing is sufficient to interrupt the current.
A. Active Resonance Circuit Breaker
In this scheme resonance is created by pre-charged capacitor Cc will raise rapidly. During
the commutation process the resonance created by LC branch opposes the main CB
current. This scheme can also be used hybrid interruption scheme.
In this scheme thyristors can be used as a switch. This scheme is a bidirectional
technique. There are different topologies in this concept [13, 14]. We discuss only two
topologies. Fig 2.2 describes the first topology [11].

Fig.2.2: First Topology of Active Resonance Mechanical Circuit Breaker

[11]
In first topology only S1 switch is closed in normal operating condition while other three
switches are in open state. In commutation branch capacitor Cc is pre-charged with
negative voltage. When fault current occurs in a system S1 switch will get open while S2
and S3 are closed. As soon as s2 and s3 are connected a reverse current will start to flow
to create zero crossing. When flow of current is zero in S2 then S2 will open and S4 is
closed. Capacitor is discharged through L, C&S4, and S3. When flow of current is zero in
S3 branch then S3 open and main current is commutated again through R, L, C & S4.
When S4 gets open then capacitor is charged again.
This topology also reflects hybrid topology. In second variation of active resonance
scheme only one circuit breaker will get open to create zero crossing.

Fig.2.3: Second Topology of Active Resonance Mechanical Circuit Breaker [11]

(ii) Hybrid technology

Hybrid interruption topology is a combination of both solid state devices and mechanical
circuit breaker. In this scheme, solid state switches create commutation in the branch.
Switches operate only when fault occurs in a system. There is a rapid development in
semiconductor switches e.g. reduction in losses, reliability and improvement in switching

15
timing. Hybrid circuit breaker topology can also classified in many categories but only
two are discuss here, i.e. switching for zero current and switching for zero voltage.

Transformer
CSD

ZnO

S
Fig.2.4: Zero current switching technique [15]
Fig. 2.4 [15] shows switching for zero current (SZC) circuit; under normal operating
condition current is flowing through switch S [16]. In the occurrence of fault, thyristor
T1 gets open and opposite current of S1 will flow through the switch due to already
charged capacitor by transformer. After a short time, zero current will flow through the
switch and no arc will produce. During the switching process a very high voltage will
produce across the branch therefore varistors are connected in parallel to limit the short
circuit and voltage. This type of technology based on (Thomson drive effect) and it is
used for low voltage application [16].
In case of switch for zero voltage (SZV), semi conductor elements are connected with
switches so; it should take very care that voltage across the switch is very low. to prevent
from arcing process and to prevent the elements. Fig. 6 SZV circuit [17].

R D1
C
IGBT
D R

D
S S
(a) (b)
Fig.2.5: Zero Voltage switching technique [17]
In Fig. 6(a) mechanical switch is connected with a RC snubber circuit [13]. To prevent
the arcing process capacitor size should be carefully calculated to prejudge the magnitude
of fault current. According to magnitude of fault the switching timing should be adjusted.
In Fig. 6(b) shows a revised circuit of SZC. In this topology IGBT is connected in parallel
with mechanical switch to enhance the voltage across the switch S. when IGBT is turned
on then S gets open and current commutates through RC snubber circuit [17]. Capacitor

16
size will decrease and interruption time will improve in this second topology.

(iii) Solid State (SS) circuit breaker:

Solid state circuit breaker based on semiconductors and this circuit breaker performs very
fast switching. This technology can also be said ultra fast switching technology. There is
the fastest interruption process of SS circuit breaker compare to all other schemes. A lot
of possible combination can be made of SS switches. We discuss here only two
topologies of SS circuit breaker. IGBTs or different semiconductor based switches are
mostly used in this type of circuit breaker. These switches are used in series and parallel
combination to control the circuit. Further research is carried on to make better the circuit
breaker [18, 19].

A. SS circuit breaker parallel with a surge arrestor:

In this type of circuit breaker solid state semiconductor switch T plays a main circuit
breaker parallel with an arrestor as shown in fig. 2.6 [18]. In normal operating condition
switch T is in on state and current flows through the switch. When fault occurs in a
system switch T will detect the fault and gets open and load current will flow from surge
arrestor. It increases the voltage across surge arrestor. If we know the fault current,
arrestor voltage and dc voltage then we can find the opening time of circuit breaker and
we can also find the absorbed energy by the arrestor.

Fig 2.6: SS CB with surge arrestor [18].

B. SS circuit breaker with freewheeling diode:

In this type topology a freewheeling diode and surge arrestor are connected in a branch
while this branch is parallel across voltage dc source as shown in fig. 2.7. In normal
operating condition switch is closed and current flows through switch T. In the occurrence
of fault switch gets open and current flows through the diode. The inductance starts to
demagnetize through the surge arrestor and fault will go to decrease. The surge voltage
can be expressed as a sum of arrestor voltage and dc voltage source. If we know the
inductance and fault current then we can find absorbed energy during interruption
1
process. 𝑊 = 2 ∗ 𝐿𝑖 2 .

17
 Fig 2.7: SS CB with freewheeling diode [18].

2.2 Comparison of topologies:

Compare these topologies with different respects such as switching time, loses of power
and rate of change of current voltage.

(i) Switching time:

Mechanical circuit breaker has slowest response in term of switching; it is up to 12ms
while solid state circuit breaker has time response then 1ms. The switching time of hybrid
circuit breakers lies in between solid state and mechanical circuit breaker [20, 30].

(ii) Power Loses:

In terms of power losses mechanical and hybrid circuit breaker without semiconductors
are superior. These circuits have lowest power losses in all topologies because there is
low voltage drop in mechanical circuit breakers. In mechanical circuit breaker power lose
is then 10−3 % while in the hybrid circuit breaker with low rating electronic switches has
0.1% of voltage source converter system. Contrary solid state circuit breaker has huge
power losses because the voltage drop across breaker is much high. The power lose in this
technology is 30% as compare to other topologies.
(iii) Voltage Rating:
High voltage mechanical circuit breakers are designed up to 550KV presently. For
experimental purpose hybrid circuit breaker has been designed up to 120KV but now it is
trying to increase its rating. Pure solid state circuit breaker is not designed yet for high
voltage rating and it is used for medium voltage applications [20, 30].
(iv) Current Rating:
Passive mechanical high voltage dc circuit breaker has interruption capability up to 4KA
while active resonance circuit breaker has switching capability up to 8KA.
Experimentally in case of hybrid circuit breaker topology current switching ability has
9KA while theoretically reach up to 16KA [20, 30].

2.3 Principle of Vacuum circuit Breaker:

Electro Magnetic Repulsion (EMR):
The principle EMR is shown in fig.2.8 [31], a pulse of current in the coil is generated

18
when a fault occurred in the system. The alternating current creates magnetic field around
the coil. The magnetic field induces in the metal plate which produces eddy current in the
plate because repulsive force is generated between the coil and metal plate because
current flows due to changing magnetic field always flow in the direction so as to oppose
his cause, according to Lenz law. Therefore moving plate moves rapidly.

Fig 2.8: Structure diagram of VCB [31].

VCB circuit topology works on the principle of RLC oscillatory discharging mode.
Current is flowing in positive direction to avoid reverse charging of capacitor. This works
in RL discharging mode.
The equivalence of metal plate can be made by series inductance and resistance. As
shown in fig. 2.9. The pulse of current during the process can be written such as,

Fig 2.9: The equivalent circuit of EMR [31].

19
 𝑈𝑜
𝑖 = 𝜔𝐿𝑒𝑞 ∗ e−∝𝑡 sin⁡
(𝜔𝑡) (2.2)

1 𝑅
While α=R/2L and 𝜔= − (2𝐿 )2
𝐿𝑒𝑞 ∗𝐶

Where Uo represents the pre-charged voltage and Leq shows the equivalent inductance of
metal plate. According to law of conservation of energy [32], the power supply is the sum
of heat loss, magnetic energy and working process.
The electromagnetic force is calculated by using following eq.

𝑑𝑀 1 𝑑𝐿𝑒𝑞
𝐹 = 𝑖1𝑖2 ∗ = 2 ∗ 𝑖1 ∗ 𝑖1 ∗ (2.3)
𝑑𝑠 𝑑𝑠

Where, S shows the displacement of metal plates. The movement EMR can also be cal
calculated,
𝑑2s
𝑚 ∗ d 2 t = 𝐹 − 𝐹𝑑𝑎𝑚𝑝 − 𝐹ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑑 (2.4)

Fdamp represents the resistance between the movements of EMR, Fhold is the permanent
magnet force and m is the mass of moving part.

20
 Chapter 3: Research methodology
The block diagram of proposed scheme is show in fig. 1.1. This scheme is divided into
four pieces, such as main VCB uses as central circuit breaker (CCB), secondly the
varistors branch, thirdly commutation branch for to create zero crossing in the scheme for
interruption purpose and lastly the backup circuit breakers on both sides of CCB for to
eliminate the residual current. The monitoring and control section is not given in fig.2.1.
This scheme based on the modular principle. Therefore CCB contains multiple modules
in series up to n number of module, which is based on the design of system voltage. Each
module comprises two parallel branches a low voltage designed VCB and varistor. The
working principle of VCB is based on repulsion by electromagnetism using permanent
magnet. If fault occurs in a system then electromagnetic repulsion system respond
quickly. The detail of VCB describes above.
The modularization of VCB has more benefit than single high voltage VCB. This
technique has two advantages over previous scheme. Firstly, if contact stroke is increased
from 2mm than dielectric strength between vacuum gaps increased nonlinearly [33]. The
design of high voltage VCB is difficult to design due to this behavior of vacuum gap. To
eliminate this problem multiple VCB are connected in series [33, 34]. The vacuum gap of
multiple small VCB can be equal or greater than main single circuit breaker with some
factor. The enhancement factor of breakdown voltage can be derived as follows. The
breakdown voltage of vacuum gap can be calculated [35],
𝑈𝑏 = 𝑘𝑑 𝛼 (4.1)
Where Ub is break down voltage while the range of α is 0.4-0.7 and k is constant. Then n
number of vacuum gaps is connected in series to calculate breakdown voltage described
in following eq. [35].
𝑈𝑏𝑛 = 𝑛 ∗ 𝑘 ∗ 𝑑 α (4.2)
The breakdown voltage Ubs for single vacuum gap and enhancement factor are given in
below equations.
𝑈𝑏𝑠 = 𝑘 ∗ (𝑛 ∗ 𝑑)𝛼
𝑈𝑏𝑛 𝑛 ∗𝑘∗𝑑 2
𝛽= = (4.3)
𝑈𝑏𝑠 k∗(𝑛 ∗𝑑)𝛼
In another respect, modularize scheme is more power efficient then single VCB gap due
to small axial dimension of vacuum circuit breaker at low voltage level. Therefore the
opening speed of circuit breaker will be increased during fault interruption. Moreover the
bearing transient recovery voltage is also on small scale as compared to single long
vacuum gap. It indicates that commutation current is injected at small value after
separation of contacts. It reflects that fault current can interrupt rapidly due to high speed
of contacts opening and small commutation stroke.
The high increasing rate of fault current can be controlled by series RL snubber circuit
before the modules of VCB. The metal oxide varistor is designed to control the peak
value of transient recovery voltage. It is parallel connected with VCB while and inductor
is also connected in series to absorb the energy during the interruption process.

21
Commutation branch contains inductor L and capacitor C and their values can be
designed on the basis of desired frequency and magnitude of countercurrent, this single
branch is paralleled to multiple modules. To attain bi direction interruption a trigger
sphere gap is adopted as a switch S.
A back up circuit breaker is used on both sides of the central circuit breaker. The backup
circuit breaker has following functions,
As described above, the arc quenching capability of triggered sphere gap is very weak
therefore bi direction extinguish technique is used. There is some drawback of bi direction
interruption of triggered sphere gap. There might be some residual current is flowing due
to long burning of arc in triggered sphere gap after quenching of arc from main circuit
breaker forcedly to zero. This residual current can be eliminated by opening the main
circuit breaker.
Secondly, in this scheme a commutation capacitor is pre-charged by this back up circuit
breaker.
Lastly, the backup circuit breaker acts as an isolator. It isolates the electrical supply from
the DC circuit breaker. If fault occurs in the left side then right side backup circuit will
operate and vice versa.

Fig 3.1: Schematic diagram of proposed scheme.

22
 Chapter 4: Simulation of the Interruption Process

4.1 Overview:
The propose scheme is designed and simulated in MATLAB/Simulink. Following
simplifications are made for DC circuit breaker scheme.
(1) The rated voltage for DC is 80 KV while the rated current is 566A. As it is
assumed that CCB contains two modules in series while voltage source is on the
left hand side and short circuit fault occurs on the right side of CCB.
(2) A fault took place after the start of simulation with average rate of rise of
3.63KA/msec. while circuit breaker is switched on at 4.8msec. At his time the
fault current exceeds up to 4.2KA.
(3) All switches are assumed to be ideal switch while commutation switch is not
included. It means all the switches have negligible resistance in on state while has
infinite resistance in open circuit state. As far as commutation switch concern, it is
considered that arc in the switch S kept burning after combustion even at zero
current until another switch cut off the current. Although condition is tough to
implement on triggered sphere gap switch S while it is applicable for our
simulation to determine the effect of residual of current.

4.2 Selection of Parameters:

The selected parameters for the scheme are given in the following table:

Table 4.1: Scheme Parameters.

Scheme Parameters

System Parameters MCB Module Commutation branch

Vol. Source 80KV Protection 80KV Charging vol. -40KV

of
(U) Voltage commutation
capacitor
(Uco )
Ro .79ohm Commutation 7.77KHz
frequency
Short circuit 23mH Peak Current 4.25 KA
Inductance Ip
(Lo)
Load 140 ohm Capacitance 12micro
Resistance (C) farad
(RL)
Inductance 35micro
(L) Henry

23
4.3 Interruption Process:

To explore the behavior of residual current due to weak arc quenching capability of
trigger sphere gap switch S simulation is performed. During the interruption process back
up switches are closed. The results of simulation are given in chap.5.The interruption
process is as follows.
t=0: The system is operating in normal state while .56KA current is flowing and
commutation capacitor is pre-charged up to 80KV.
T1: A short circuit fault takes place. The monitoring and control system detects the
fault and send it gives the opening signal to EMR system of every module of CCB. It
starts operating to open the contacts of breaker quickly due to this arc is formed.
T2: After reaching the short circuit current up to 4.2KA. Commutation switch is
triggered and injecting high frequency oscillating commutated current when CCB
approaches a certain safe limit to withstand the transient recovery voltage
T2-T3: During the first commutation process currents starts to shift from CCB to
commutation branch. In this process commutation capacitor starts to discharge and its
voltage continuously decreases.
T3: At the end of first commutation process current is completely transferred to
commutation branch. The arc in CCB quenches due to forced the current zero as a result
high energy is generated. To absorb this energy an series inductor with metal oxide
varistor is used.
T3-T4: The capacitor starts charging after discharging the capacitor during first
commutation process with positive voltage in reverse direction. Due to increase of voltage
of commutation capacitor, the CCB voltage also increases. Therefore current starts to
move from commutation branch to varistor branch.
T4: This is the second commutation process in which total current is shifted to arrestor
branch.
T5: The current through switch S crosses zero crossing after flowing current through
varistor. If a tripping command is given to switch S at the zero crossing moment then arc
can be quenched as experimental and simulation results shown [8, 9]. In spite of zero
crossing there is no guarantee that arc can be fully quenching. It is totally depend on the
history of arc and geometry of sphere gap. It concludes that only commutation switch S is
incapable to cut off current by itself in the simulation. As a result, residual current is still
flowing in the commutation branch.
T5-T6: The current frequency of commutation and metal oxide varistor is about 10 kHz.
This current is decreasing gradually. In this process, the total current which is flowing is
the sum of commutation current, varistor branch current and charging resistor.
T6: The total flowing current will be zero after cut off the varistor branch.
In spite of the fact that the commutation switch can’t quench the arc itself. Due to long
time arc burning an oscillating current can flow in the DC system up to 430A. The
oscillating frequency can be calculated such as follows,
1
𝑓= = 165Hz
2𝜋 (𝐿+𝐿𝑜)∗𝐶

The arc in the triggered sphere gap can quenched at certain current level. It is depend on
many factors as discussed above. Therefore, triggered sphere gap is not a dependable arc

24
quenching switch. To eliminate the residual current then backup circuit breaker is used
and simulation is shown in fig. If contacts of backup circuit breaker are opened at t6 then
arc will be quenched and current flow in through triggered sphere gap will also be zero.
At the end of process, the commutation capacitor starts to discharge from charging
resistor after that the second backup circuit breaker can also be opened to isolate the
whole circuit.

4.4 The influence of commutation current frequency on the interruption process:

In the view of simulation results, current commutation technique has a favorable

interruption. Commutation process depends on commutation branch and mainly on
frequency of commutation current. If the frequency of commutation increases then the
value of capacitor and inductor will decrease for the same value of voltage and current.
This indicates smaller volume and lower cost. It is also to be noted that voltage across
commutation capacitor and peak of desired countercurrent should be greater than
suddenly short circuit current.
As it is discussed above, triggered sphere gap has weak arc quenching capability to
achieve bi-direction interruption. In this method, commutation current will overlap with
to increasing short circuit current same direction in the first half cycle. The current is
interrupted in the next half cycle. More energy is decomposed when superimposition of
currents occurred. This is a big obstruction in the way of successful interruption. This
drawback can be overcome by injecting high frequency current. For example 50 KHz
frequency is used [33].

25
 Chapter 5: Simulation Results
The results of proposed scheme are shown in following figures. The following results
describe the effect of residual current and the significance of backup circuit breaker.
Firstly, the results are shown without use backup circuit breaker.
5.1: Interruption results without Backup circuit breaker:

Fig 5.1: source current.

Fig 5.1 shows normal current is flowing about 650A while a fault occur in the 2ms then
current starts to rise. As it approaches the safe limit 4.1A then VCB contacts on and
switch S is closed. Arc is quenching at zero crossing at 6.8ms but residual current
continues to flow until backup circuit breaker works. Detail of commutation process
describes above in the methodology.
5.2: Commutation current.

Fig 5.2: shows the commutation current.

26
Fig 5.2 shows when the contacts of VCB open then the transient recovery voltage
approaches to certain safe limit. As a result high current flows and at the same time
commutation switch is closed. Due to which oscillating current is injected in the system.
5.3: Commutation Voltage.

Fig 5.3: shows the commutation voltage.

Fig 5.3 depicts that as commutation capacitor is inversely pre-charged when switch S is
on then commutation capacitor starts to discharge to create commutation. When all the
current is transferred from CCB to Metal Oxide Varistor then it charged again in reverse
direction. As residual current continues to flow therefore its voltage drops again.
5.4: interrupt residual current.
Secondly, to interrupt the residual current backup circuit breaker is used

Fig 5.4: current source with backup circuit breaker.

27
In fig 5.4 residual current remain flows after breaking the circuit breaker, therefore it is a
need of backup circuit breaker to interrupt the current zero. According to at 7.8ms backup
circuit interrupts the source current.
5.5: Commutation current with backup circuit breaker.

Fig 5.5: commutation current with backup circuit breaker.

Fig 5.5 shows high transient current flows in the interruption process due to high transient
recovery voltage. While after switching backup circuit is on then there will no current
flow in the system due to commutation current.
5.6: Commutation voltage.

Fig 5.6: commutation voltage with backup circuit breaker.

In fig 5.6 when fault occurs in the commutation starts to discharge and charge again
reverse direction. Its charge starts to decrease after open the backup circuit breaker.

28
 Chapter 6: Conclusion and Future Work

The propose HVDC interruption scheme is based on artificial zero crossing. This thesis
can be compiled as follows.
To conclude that this scheme works perfectly and interruption time is 4.8ms. As a
comparison from ultra fast switching the interruption time is slightly greater but scheme
works much faster than previous mechanical circuit breaker. As compare to previous
scheme it is cost effective because there is no use of RC snubber circuit which require
high capacitor bank. In bi-directional interruption of HVDC system a triggered sphere gap
can be utilized as a switch S. Residual current can flow through the switch S due to feeble
arc quenching capability of triggered sphere gap after the commutation process. The
residual can be controlled by using backup circuit breaker.
According to simulation results the residual can be damped more rapidly by using high
frequency. Moreover, the thermal joule losses i.e. integral I2 *t created due to residual
current can be eliminated using high frequency. The value of commutation inductor and
commutation capacitor can be different from each other. According to simulation small
inductance and large capacitance with lower charging voltage can be controlled the
increasing rate of change of transient recovery voltage and interruption capability will
become better.
The proposed interruption scheme is only implemented on simulation based on the above
designed circuit. Nevertheless, the practical implementation of this scheme is much more
complicated. The effect of commutation frequency during the arcing process is the point
of question. The difficulty in the scheme is the modularize design due to equal
distribution of voltage over the whole CCB module. There is a need to explore the above
problems.

29
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