Thomson-Coil Actuator System for Enhanced Active Resonant DC Circuit Breakers

Enhanced active resonant (EAR) dc circuit breakers (DCCBs) are a promising set of recently proposed DCCB concepts. As other DCCBs, EAR DCCBs still require a fast mechanical switch. The requirements on the actuator of the mechanical switch depend on the DCCB concept and the dc grid and are derived here for an EAR DCCB. Thomson-coil actuators (TCAs) can open and close mechanical switches sufficiently fast to satisfy the requirements. This work studies experimentally a TCA system with active damping for an off-the-shelf industrial vacuum interrupter used as mechanical switch in an EAR DCCB. The prototype is explained in detail, and extensive measurement results are presented, showing that active damping must be perfectly timed to be effective. A novel Thomson-coil (TC) driver is proposed and studied experimentally, which operates the TCA more efficiently by recycling energy during the actuation. Moreover, the novel TC driver reduces the capacitive storage by 50% and allows for faster recharging with lower charging current. Finally, the autoreclosing and proactive commutation operation of the TCA system and the interruption capability of the prototype EAR DCCB are demonstrated experimentally.