An HVCB Electronic Drive for Modern Electrical Substations in Distribution Power Systems

The growing need for automation leads to the development of new electronic devices in greater and different fields of applications. One interest is new automation devices for high-voltage distribution substations. High-voltage circuit breakers (HVCBs) use a mechanical-based operation mechanism to open and close maneuvers. Conventional breaker drives are old and complicated to adapt to new electronics automated devices, such as remote monitoring supervision systems, measurements-acquisition systems, and protection systems. To obtain more flexibility and higher reliability, a new electronic operation mechanism, which can interface with modern substations and automation systems, is presented here and investigated. An evolution of the first electronic drive presented in the past years is described here through simulation and field test. Successful results gathered after IEC62271-100-type tests confirm the reliability and stability of this kind of new operating mechanism on full-scaled HVCBs and support its use in high-performance demand breakers, in terms of speed and energy request.