Demonstration of 5kV/150A Series-Type Hybrid Circuit Breaker (S-HCB) Using a High-Temperature Superconducter (HTS) Counter Voltage Injection Transformer

The series-type hybrid circuit breaker (S-HCB) presented in this paper has the capability of quickly turning off a 5kV DC grid with a short circuit point at 150A in approximately 10µs. The goal of this circuit breaker is to quickly control the fault of a super conducting DC grid while a low loss, but slow opening, mechanical switch opens the circuit when the 150A fault is detected. The ability to quickly reduce the grid’s current to zero while also generating zero crossings during the mechanical switch opening time are the major benefits of this circuit breaker. The process of how this ultra-fast circuit breaker functions is explained briefly along with the preliminary experimental results of the breaker. Future work will focus on increasing the voltage rating of the circuit breaker while also optimizing the weight and volume of all components used.