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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Energy Res.
Sec. Smart Grids
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenrg.2025.1430142

Fault Current Handling in Large-scale MMC-HVDC Systems: An Improved Approach with DC Circuit Breaker and Fault Current Limiter

Provisionally accepted
Rashid Hussain Chandio Rashid Hussain Chandio 1*Madad Ali Shah Madad Ali Shah 1Abdul Aziz Abdul Aziz 1Khawaja Haider Ali Khawaja Haider Ali 1Jahangeer Soomro Jahangeer Soomro 1Basem Alamri Basem Alamri 2Ahmed Althobaiti Ahmed Althobaiti 2Mohammed Alqarni Mohammed Alqarni 3*
  • 1 Sukkur IBA University, Sukkur, Pakistan
  • 2 Taif University, Ta'if, Saudi Arabia
  • 3 University of Business and Technology, Jeddah, Makkah, Saudi Arabia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Designing Voltage Source Converter (VSC)-based DC grids presents a significant challenge in providing dependable and cost-effective protection against short-circuit faults. Given the increased vulnerability of high-voltage DC (HVDC) lines to the faults, there is a dire need for enhanced protection equipment capable of effectively handling fault currents. By limiting the rapid increase in fault current, fault current limiters (FCLs) reduce the requirement for complex DC circuit breakers (DCCBs) design in order to isolate faults. This paper presents a novel Hybrid FCL for the protection of large scale VSC-HVDC. It provides a comprehensive analysis of DCCBs and their impact on VSC-HVDC projects with and without FCLs. It further analyses an extensive discussion comparing DCCBs equipped with FCLs to those without FCLs. For simulation analysis, an equivalent circuit modeling approach of the Zhoushan HVDC Project is used to analyze current behavior of FCL-equipped breakers. The paper presents the circuit diagram and operational principles of the proposed FCL. Subsequently, it analyzes the FCL performance with its current limiting features and outlines the parameter design requirements necessary for its implementation. Simulation results utilizing PSCAD/EMTDC are provided to validate various aspects of this research. Further, the performance of the proposed FCL is compared with existing solutions proposed in the literature. From theoretical and simulation validations, it is concluded that DCCBs equipped with FCLs outperform conventional DCCBs without FCLs for higher-rated VSC-HVDC projects.

    Keywords: VSC-HVDC, MMC-HVDC, protection, DCCBs, Hybrid CB, FCL

    Received: 31 May 2024; Accepted: 15 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Chandio, Shah, Aziz, Ali, Soomro, Alamri, Althobaiti and Alqarni. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Rashid Hussain Chandio, Sukkur IBA University, Sukkur, Pakistan
    Mohammed Alqarni, University of Business and Technology, Jeddah, 21361, Makkah, Saudi Arabia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.