Technical Evaluation of Superconducting Fault Current Limiters Used in a Micro-Grid by Considering the Fault Characteristics of Distributed Generation, Energy Storage and Power Loads

Abstract

Concerning the development of a micro-grid integrated with multiple intermittent renewable energy resources, one of the main issues is related to the improvement of its robustness against short-circuit faults. In a sense, the superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) can be regarded as a feasible approach to enhance the transient performance of a micro-grid under fault conditions. In this paper, the fault transient analysis of a micro-grid, including distributed generation, energy storage and power loads, is conducted, and regarding the application of one or more flux-coupling-type SFCLs in the micro-grid, an integrated technical evaluation method considering current-limiting performance, bus voltage stability and device cost is proposed. In order to assess the performance of the SFCLs and verify the effectiveness of the evaluation method, different fault cases of a 10-kV micro-grid with photovoltaic (PV), wind generator and energy storage are simulated in the MATLAB software. The results show that, the efficient use of the SFCLs for the micro-grid can contribute to reducing the fault current, improving the voltage sags and suppressing the frequency fluctuations. Moreover, there will be a compromise design to fully take advantage of the SFCL parameters, and thus, the transient performance of the micro-grid can be guaranteed.

Keywords

• distributed generation (DG)
• micro-grid
• flux-coupling-type superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL)
• technical evaluation method
• short-circuit fault analyses