Coordination Control of Power Flow Controller and Hybrid DC Circuit Breaker in MVDC Distribution Networks

Abstract

The two main challenges of medium voltage direct current (MVDC) distribution network are the flexible control of power flow (PF) and fault protection. In this paper, the power flow controller (PFC) is introduced to regulate the PF and inhibit the fault current during the DC fault. The coordination strategy of series-parallel PFC (SP-PFC) and hybrid DC circuit breaker (DCCB) is proposed. By regulating the polarity and magnitude of SP-PFC output voltage during the fault, the rising speed of fault current can be suppressed so as to reduce the breaking current of hybrid DCCB. The access mode of SP-PFC to the MVDC distribution network and its topology are analyzed, and the coordination strategy between SP-PFC and hybrid DCCB is investigated. Moreover, the emergency control and bypass control strategies of SP-PFC are developed. On this basis, the mathematical model of SP-PFC in different fault stages is derived. With the equivalent model of SP-PFC, the fault current of the MVDC distribution network can be calculated accurately. A simulation model of the MVDC distribution network containing SP-PFC is established in MATLAB/Simulink. The fault current calculation result is compared with the simulation result, and the effectiveness of the proposed coordination strategy is verified.

Keywords

• Medium voltage direct current (MVDC) distribution network
• fault current
• power flow controller (PFC)
• DC circuit breaker (DCCB)