ACTIVE CURRENT INJECTION METHOD FOR LIMITING GROUND FAULT CURRENT HARMONICS IN UNDERGROUND COAL MINES

Current practice in U.S. underground coal mine high-voltage distribution systems is to attempt to limit ground fault current to 25 Amperes and de-energize the circuit at 10 Amperes. However, the significant amount of system capacitance due to the use of shielded cables can cause ground fault current to be two or three times the intended ground fault limit. Consequently, this practice can cause several issues such as ground fault currents significantly exceeding the neutral grounding resistor current limit, loss of relay selectivity in the distribution system, and transient overvoltages in certain ground fault situations. These issues are solved to some extent by using a resonance grounded system, currently used in some other countries. However, a shortcoming of traditional resonance grounded systems is the inability to deal with the harmonic components existing in ground fault current. With the increasing use of nonlinear sources such as variable frequency drives, the proportion of harmonic components in ground fault current can be significant. Consequently, although the fundamental component can be almost fully compensated in a traditional resonance grounded system, the harmonic components can still be large enough to maintain arcing and cause personal injury and equipment damage. In this dissertation, a novel method is developed to perform real-time prediction of the harmonics in ground fault currents. Methods for neutralizing the ground fault current harmonics and identifying ground fault location are also developed. Results indicate that the combination of traditional high-resistance grounding and active current injection to neutralize harmonics in the ground fault has the potential to significantly reduce the total ground fault current and reduce arc and flash hazards during ground faults in high voltage distribution systems

Index to 1984 NASA Tech Briefs, volume 9, numbers 1-4

Short announcements of new technology derived from the R&D activities of NASA are presented. These briefs emphasize information considered likely to be transferrable across industrial, regional, or disciplinary lines and are issued to encourage commercial application. This index for 1984 Tech B Briefs contains abstracts and four indexes: subject, personal author, originating center, and Tech Brief Number. The following areas are covered: electronic components and circuits, electronic systems, physical sciences, materials, life sciences, mechanics, machinery, fabrication technology, and mathematics and information sciences

Fault current compensations in resonant grounded distribution systems to mitigate powerline bushfires using a nonsingular terminal sliding model controller

A fault current compensation technique is proposed in this paper for resonant grounded power distribution systems in bushfire prone areas. Arc suppression devices with residual current compensation inverters are used to compensate fault currents due to single line-to-ground faults in order to mitigate powerline bushfires. The main contribution of this paper is the design of a compensation technique for the T-type residual current compensation inverter using a non-singular terminal sliding mode control scheme. The main objective of the proposed scheme is to reduce the fault current and bring its value to a level so that it cannot ignite fires. The proposed controller is designed based on the selection of a sliding surface in a way the singularity problem can be avoided and chattering effects in existing sliding mode controllers can be eliminated. The desired current injection through the residual current compensation inverter is ensured by enforcing the control law into the terminal sliding surface where the control law is determined by satisfying the Lyapunov stability criteria. The performance of the non-singular terminal sliding mode controller is compared with an integral sliding mode controller by considering different values of fault currents where these values are varied by changing fault resistances. Results for simulation in the software and processor-in-loop simulations are verified against operational standards which are essential for mitigating powerline bushfires. This work focuses to design a non-singular terminal sliding mode controller for the residual current compensation inverter which is used in an arc suppression device to compensate both active and reactive components of the fault current and keeps its value below 0.5 A within 2 s after activating the residual current compensation inverter which is a requirement as per the operational standard. This controller is designed based on the selection of a terminal sliding surface while satisfying the condition for avoiding the singularity problem

Controlled Switching of Reactive Loads and Commisioning Regimes

Switching is a vital task in any power system for ensuring its safe and reliable operation. Switching may be necessary for fault clearance, to ensure wider system stability and to prevent damage to plant. It is essential for isolation, to allow technicians to carry out maintenance tasks safely. Also, switching of reactive loads such as shunt capacitor banks and shunt reactors, is crucial for controlling system voltage. Switching of some loads however, may produce voltage transients and heavy transient inrush currents which can impact on wider system power quality, impact customers and cause damage or deterioration of the insulation of HV equipment. Therefore, it is important to provide some form of measure to control or mitigate transients caused by switching. The main control measures include: metal oxide surge arrestors, pre-insertion resistors, current limiting reactors and synchronised or controlled switching. Controlled switching is the favoured solution for frequently switched loads such as reactive plant, for economic benefits and as it reduces transients in the first instance. Controlled switching is defined as the use of electronic equipment to control the making or breaking of high voltage circuit breakers at pre-determined points on the system voltage and current waveforms. It has been implemented in Ireland for over 30 years for the energisation of shunt capacitor banks. Over the last two years, the benefits of controlled switching for different applications has become ever more apparent, with increased use such as switching of transmission shunt reactors and the energisation of large power transformers, particularly in remote areas of the network such as wind farm interfaces. The aim of this thesis is to provide a complete overview of the stages concerned in implementing controlled switching schemes, from examining the impacts of switching certain loads, to performing systems studies, up to site commissioning stage. The research in this thesis looks at both the theory and practice. It draws together the published work, manufacturers guidelines, international standards and simulation results, to give the total awareness of the issues involved in reactive load switching and commissioning regimes. The various solutions and strategies associated with controlled switching schemes are examined, to ensure that the best and most economical solution has being implemented. Several recent projects where controlled switching has been implemented for switching of transmission reactors and power transformers are also investigated

Medium Voltage Network Residual Earth Fault Current Estimation Methods

Extensive cabling during 2010s has drastically changed the earth fault behaviour of the rural area distribution network. Against the assumptions of traditional earth fault analysis, cable net-work zero sequence series impedance is nonnegligible, thus zero sequence voltage applied over the zero sequence impedance during an earth fault generates a resistive component to the earth fault current in addition to the capacitive component. In the resonant earthed neutral sys-tem, capacitive earth fault current can be compensated with inductive Petersen coils, but the resistive current component cannot be compensated with Petersen coils. Increase of resistive earth fault current will increase the absolute value of the residual earth fault current flowing to ground during the earth fault and consequently cause dangerous touch voltages. The reactive component of the residual earth fault current is mostly known but the resistive component is associated with multiple uncertainties. The harmonic component is out of the scope of this thesis and thus omitted. Due to the uncertainties, calculation of the resistive earth fault current has proven to be complicated, but if residual earth fault current is to be calculated accurately, the resistive component must be calculated or estimated first. The SFS 6001: 2018 standard states that if the residual earth fault current in resonant earthed neutral system is unknown the value can be assumed 10% of the network capacitive earth fault current. However, as extensive cabling increases resistive earth fault current production of the network, the validity of this assumption has caused concern. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to develop a practically oriented model for estimating residual earth fault current that can easily be applied to multiple locations in the network. Secondly, the validity of the 10% assumption specified by the standard was studied in Elenia’s network. The network information system used in Elenia is currently unable to take into account the cable network zero sequence impedance, thus a statistical examination was performed based on network data from 45 primary transformer areas. The measurements from centralized Petersen coil regulators were utilized in the examination, since the regulators provide real-time measurement of the network resistive earth fault current production. In the statistical examination the dependency of resistive earth fault current from other network parameters was studied. The objective was to identify variables that correlate with resistive earth fault current, so that they could be used to estimate the resistive earth fault current. After the correlation analysis, correction factors were assigned to the variables and the results were compared to the measurements from the regulators. The conclusion was that the resistive earth fault current can be estimated to be 5% of the total capacitive earth fault current. This result was applied to residual earth fault current calculation and the obtained values were again compared to the values calculated from the measurements. There was only a minor difference, which implies that the developed model yields accurate results. More importantly, the developed model proved to provide more accurate results than the estimation method specified in SFS 6001, that acted as a reference. In addition, there are two alternative interpretations of the method specified in the standard, so depending on the interpretation, the results were either too high or too low when applied to Elenia’s network. However, the results of this thesis are heavily dependent on the properties of the network, thus results should only be applied to networks with similar configuration

Medium Voltage Network Residual Earth Fault Current Estimation Methods

Extensive cabling during 2010s has drastically changed the earth fault behaviour of the rural area distribution network. Against the assumptions of traditional earth fault analysis, cable net-work zero sequence series impedance is nonnegligible, thus zero sequence voltage applied over the zero sequence impedance during an earth fault generates a resistive component to the earth fault current in addition to the capacitive component. In the resonant earthed neutral sys-tem, capacitive earth fault current can be compensated with inductive Petersen coils, but the resistive current component cannot be compensated with Petersen coils. Increase of resistive earth fault current will increase the absolute value of the residual earth fault current flowing to ground during the earth fault and consequently cause dangerous touch voltages. The reactive component of the residual earth fault current is mostly known but the resistive component is associated with multiple uncertainties. The harmonic component is out of the scope of this thesis and thus omitted. Due to the uncertainties, calculation of the resistive earth fault current has proven to be complicated, but if residual earth fault current is to be calculated accurately, the resistive component must be calculated or estimated first. The SFS 6001: 2018 standard states that if the residual earth fault current in resonant earthed neutral system is unknown the value can be assumed 10% of the network capacitive earth fault current. However, as extensive cabling increases resistive earth fault current production of the network, the validity of this assumption has caused concern. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to develop a practically oriented model for estimating residual earth fault current that can easily be applied to multiple locations in the network. Secondly, the validity of the 10% assumption specified by the standard was studied in Elenia’s network. The network information system used in Elenia is currently unable to take into account the cable network zero sequence impedance, thus a statistical examination was performed based on network data from 45 primary transformer areas. The measurements from centralized Petersen coil regulators were utilized in the examination, since the regulators provide real-time measurement of the network resistive earth fault current production. In the statistical examination the dependency of resistive earth fault current from other network parameters was studied. The objective was to identify variables that correlate with resistive earth fault current, so that they could be used to estimate the resistive earth fault current. After the correlation analysis, correction factors were assigned to the variables and the results were compared to the measurements from the regulators. The conclusion was that the resistive earth fault current can be estimated to be 5% of the total capacitive earth fault current. This result was applied to residual earth fault current calculation and the obtained values were again compared to the values calculated from the measurements. There was only a minor difference, which implies that the developed model yields accurate results. More importantly, the developed model proved to provide more accurate results than the estimation method specified in SFS 6001, that acted as a reference. In addition, there are two alternative interpretations of the method specified in the standard, so depending on the interpretation, the results were either too high or too low when applied to Elenia’s network. However, the results of this thesis are heavily dependent on the properties of the network, thus results should only be applied to networks with similar configuration

Design and Implementation of High-Efficiency, Lightweight, System-Friendly Solid-State Circuit Breaker

Direct current (DC) distribution system has shown potential over the alternative current (AC) distribution system in some application scenarios, e.g., electrified transportation, renewable energy, data center, etc. Because of the fast response speed, DC solid-state circuit breaker (SSCB) becomes a promising technology for the future power electronics intensive DC energy system with fault-tolerant capability. First, a thorough literature survey is performed to review the DC-SSCB technology. The key components for DC-SSCB, including power semiconductors, topologies, energy absorption units, and fault detection circuits, are studied. It is observed that the prior studies mainly focus on the basic interruption capability of the DC-SSCB. There are not so many studies on SSCB’s size optimization or system-friendly functions. Second, an insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) based lightweight SSCB is proposed. With the reduced gate voltage, the proposed SSCB can limit the peak fault current without the bulky and heavy fault current limiting the inductor, which exists in the conventional SSCB circuit. Thus, the specific power density of the SSCB is substantially improved compared with the conventional design. Meanwhile, to understand the impact of different design parameters on the performance of SSCB, an analytical model is built to establish the relationship between SSCB dynamic performance and operating conditions considering the key components and circuit parasitics. Simulation and test results demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed model. To limit the fault current with the proposed SSCB without a current limiting inductor, power semiconductors need to operate in the active region temporarily. During this interval, a severe voltage oscillation has been observed experimentally, leading to the DC-SSCB overstress and eventually the failure. A detailed MATLAB/Simulink model is built to understand the mechanism causing the voltage oscillation. Three suppression methods using enhanced gate drive circuitry are proposed and compared. Test results based on a 2kV/1kA SSCB prototype demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed oscillation mitigation method and the accuracy of the derived model. Meanwhile, when the system fault impedance is close to zero (e.g., high di/dt), the influence of the parasitic inductance contributed by interconnection (e.g., bus bar, module package, etc.) cannot be neglected. To study the influence of the bus bar connections on SSCB with high di/dt, a Q3D extractor is adopted to extract the parasitic parameters of the SSCB and understand the influence of different bus bar connections. A vertical bus bar is proposed to suppress the side effect and verified by the Q3D extractor and experimental results. Finally, a system-friendly SSCB is demonstrated. The proposed gate drive enables the SSCB to operate in the current limitation mode for the overcurrent limitation. The current limitation level and limitation time can be tuned by the gate drive. Then, this dissertation provides an all-in-one solution with integrated circuitries as the fault detector, actuator for the semiconductor’s operating status regulation, and coordinated control. This allows the developed SSCB to limit system fault current not exceeding short-circuit current rating (SCCR) and also take different responses under different fault cases. The feasibility and the effectiveness of the proposed system-friendly SSCB are validated with experimental results based on a 200V/10A SSCB demonstrator

Fault current limitation with energy recovery based on power electronics in hybrid AC-DC systems

The active distribution networks are becoming increasingly complicated hybrid AC-DC systems constructed by massive power electronics, the magnitude and direction of power flow may change randomly at any time, making the usual protection potentially insensitive, increasing the negative impacts of single-phase-to-ground (SPG) fault which accounts for the majority of all faults that occurred in medium-voltage (MV) distribution networks in the past. The zero-sequence current in the impedance branch induced between the lines and ground will pass through the SPG fault branch as fault current. This study transfers the zero-sequence current from the SPG fault branch to the power electronic branch connected between the faulty phase and ground involved in the construction of hybrid AC-DC system, thereby limiting SPG fault branch current and reducing fault node potential. This helps to extinguish fault arc and provides engineers with safe conditions to clear faulty elements from the SPG fault branch. The power electronic bears the same fault current and fault phase voltage as SPG fault and will therefore absorb energy in the same way as SPG fault, the energy is recovered and routed back to the hybrid AC-DC system via interconnected power electronics for reuse. The proposed is verified by simulation and experiment

Power Converter of Electric Machines, Renewable Energy Systems, and Transportation

Power converters and electric machines represent essential components in all fields of electrical engineering. In fact, we are heading towards a future where energy will be more and more electrical: electrical vehicles, electrical motors, renewables, storage systems are now widespread. The ongoing energy transition poses new challenges for interfacing and integrating different power systems. The constraints of space, weight, reliability, performance, and autonomy for the electric system have increased the attention of scientific research in order to find more and more appropriate technological solutions. In this context, power converters and electric machines assume a key role in enabling higher performance of electrical power conversion. Consequently, the design and control of power converters and electric machines shall be developed accordingly to the requirements of the specific application, thus leading to more specialized solutions, with the aim of enhancing the reliability, fault tolerance, and flexibility of the next generation power systems

Power quality improvement by using DSTATCOM

Distribution system, as the name suggest, is the medium through which power is distributed among the end consumers. Distribution systems are comparatively not as stiff as grid systems, so objectionable voltage drop due to the increase of RL load could be critical for the entire system. Thus DSTATCOM is an effective solution for power systems facing such power quality problems. This report deals with one of the potential applications of distribution static compensator (DSTATCOM) to industrial systems for mitigation of voltage sag problem. The model of DSTATCOM connected in shunt configuration to a three phase source feeding RL loads is developed using Simulink of MATLAB software. Simulated results demonstrate that DSTATCOM can be considered as a viable solution for solving such voltage dip problems. This thesis work aims at developing a DSTATCOM for inductive and resistive loads with reduced voltage sag