Design and Line Fault Protection Scheme of a DC Microgrid Based on Battery Energy Storage System

Abstract

Currently, the Direct-Current (DC) microgrid has been gaining popularity because most electronics devices require a DC power input. A DC microgrid can significantly reduce the AC to DC energy conversion loss. However, a power grid may experience a line fault situation that may damage important household devices and cause a blackout in the power system. This work proposes a new line fault protection scheme for a DC microgrid system by using a battery energy storage system (BESS). Nowadays, the BESS is one of the most cost effective energy storage technologies for power system applications. The proposed system is designed from a distributed wind farm smart grid. A total of three off-shore wind farms provide power to the grid through a high voltage DC (HVDC) transmission line. The DC microgrid was modeled by a BESS with a bi-directional DC–DC converter, various DC-loads with step down DC–DC converters, a voltage source converter, and a voltage source inverter. Details of the control strategies of the DC microgrid are described. During the line fault situation, a transient voltage was controlled by a BESS. From the simulation analyses, it is confirmed that the proposed method can supply stable power to the DC grid, which can also ensure protection of several loads of the DC microgrid. The effectiveness of the proposed system is verified by in a MATLAB/SIMULINK® environment.

Keywords

• DC microgrid
• smart grid
• wind farm
• HVDC
• DC load
• battery energy storage
• line fault