DC fault isolation study of bidirectional dual active bridge DC/DC converter for DC transmission grid application.

Harrye, Yasen A.; Ahmed, Khaled H.; Aboushady, Ahmed A.

Abstract

Fast isolation and detection of DC faults is currently a limiting factor in high power DC transmission grid development. Recent research has shown that the role of DC/DC converters is becoming increasingly important in solving various DC grid challenges such as voltage stepping, galvanic isolation and power regulation. This paper focuses on an additional important feature of bidirectional dual active bridge (DAB) DC-DC converters which make it attractive for future DC grids; it's inherent fault isolation capability which does not need control intervention to limit fault current in case of the most severe DC faults. Detailed analytical, simulation and experimental study are performed by subjecting the converter to DC short circuit faults at its DC voltage terminals. The results obtained have shown significant advantage of DAB where fault current is less than rated current during the fault duration. Thus no control action is necessary from the non-faulted bridge to limit fault current and no external DC circuit breakers are required. This advantage makes DAB converter feasible for DC grid integration.

Citation

HARRYE, Y.A., AHMED, K.H. and ABOUSHADY, A.A. 2015. DC fault isolation study of bidirectional dual active bridge DC/DC converter for DC transmission grid application. In Proceedings of the 41st IEEE Industrial Electronics Society annual conference (IECON 2015), 9-12 November 2015, Yokohama, Japan. Piscataway: IEEE [online], pages 3193-3198. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1109/IECON.2015.7392592

• Conference Name: 41st IEEE Industrial Electronics Society annual conference (IECON 2015)
• Conference Location: Yokohama, Japan
• Start Date: Nov 9, 2015
• End Date: Nov 12, 2015
• Acceptance Date: Jun 24, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Nov 12, 2015
• Publication Date: Jan 28, 2016
• Deposit Date: Jul 20, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 20, 2016
• Publisher: IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Pages: 3193-3198
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/IECON.2015.7392592
• Keywords: DCDC converter; Dual active bridge (DAB) converter; DC fault; Voltage
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/1546