DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A HYBRID DC CIRCUIT BREAKER TOPOLOGY WITH REGENERATIVE CURRENT BREAKING CAPABILITY

Recently, dealing with DC power has become significantly easier due to the stunning breakthrough of semiconductor technology and the continuous development of power electronics. The DC power system is getting immense attention in application areas such as DC Microgrid, HVDC Transmission, HVDC Grid, Electric Traction, etc. Despite its numerous advantages, interruption of DC current poses significant challenges due to the lack of a natural zero crossing like AC current has. Furthermore, when current flows in a DC network, energy is stored in the network inductances, and this stored energy strongly opposes the current breaking. Therefore, for safe and efficient breaking of DC current, the stored energy of the network must be removed. A DC Circuit Breaker (DCCB) is the appropriate technology to break this current, and while doing so, it absorbs the energy and dissipates it as heat through snubber networks or nonlinear resistors.