Review of Linear Electromagnetic Actuators for Distribution Grid Control and Protection Apparatus

This paper provides a review of the state-of-the-art linear electromagnetic actuators used in power distribution grid control and protection apparatus, such as circuit breakers. Firstly, key actuation requirements of the considered application are summarized. Then, four different aspects of actuators are identified according to which actuators can be classified. Actuators known from literature are reviewed, their key operating principles are summarized, and they are classified to comparatively analyze advantages and challenges within each of those four ways of classification. The presented approach not only provides a literature review of actuators for the application at hand, but also a generalization framework by means of classification, such that the core principle of operation as well as key advantages and disadvantages of further actuator examples can be comparatively studied.