Structure and Design of Solid-State Grounding System

The grounding system of any power system equipment is designed to support the continuity of operation, provide a path for fault currents, improve personnel safety, and limit/eliminate ground potentials. The growing number of grid-connected power electronic converters (PECs) poses challenges for conventional designs of grounding systems. Such challenges are mostly due to ground currents and potentials that are dominated by harmonic components produced by grid-connected PECs. These ground currents and potentials are triggered by instantaneous unbalances in the 3ϕ currents and voltages generated by a 3ϕ grid-connected PEC. This paper investigates new designs of grounding systems that are based on on power electronic converters. Investigated new grounding systems (introduced in this paper as solid-state grounding systems) are tested to highlight their capabilities and possible advantages over conventional ones.