Noise in DC Systems and the Potential Influence on Arc Detection

Noise and arc detection are two issues which should be handled seriously during the roll out of DC micro grids. Most of arc detection systems nowadays rely on the measurement of arc noise within the 2-150 kHz band. However, the existence of background noise may interfere arc detection and lead to misjudgments. To investigate this topic, noise emissions of 3 common DC loads were first tested. Test results could be used to tune EMC requirements for DC microgrids. Therefore an arc test platform was developed as the necessary analysis tool. Arc characteristics were investigated in different conditions. Finally, the potential influence of background noise on arc detection was analyzed, which can be helpful for the future development of arc detection in DC micro grids and elaborating EMC requirements.