A State-of-the-Art 500-kV Hybrid Circuit Breaker for a dc Grid: The World's Largest Capacity High-Voltage dc Circuit Breaker

Abstract

High-voltage dc (HVdc) circuit breakers (CBs) are a key technology of multiterminal dc (MTdc) systems and grids. In this article, a state-of-the-art 500-kV hybrid CB (HCB) topology is proposed and compared with other existing HCB solutions. Implementing the topology includes three important components: a modular designed high-current bidirectional solid-state switch (SS), an ultrafast mechanical switch (MS) based on a Thomson (CCDC) equipment with no conduction loss, whose corresponding functional verification test results have been presented in detail. On this basis, the overall 500-kV HCB and a comprehensive experimental platform are developed. Detailed experiments, including 25-kA turn-off and reclosing experiments, are conducted. The HCB was found to be capable of breaking a 25-kA current in 2.7 ms with 800-kV overvoltage, which is on par with the level of leading CBs worldwide.