Design of a Surge Arrester Based Load Commutation Switch for Hybrid HVDC Breakers

In this paper, the switching behavior of a combination of series and parallel connected IGBTs with a parallel metal oxide (MO) surge arrester is investigated. This configuration is for use in medium and high voltage DC-breaker applications. The focus of this paper is on the application and operation of an auxiliary power electronic switch, referred to as the load commutation switch (LCS), for the hybrid HVDC breaker (HHB). The switching behavior of a state of the art SPT+ IGBT is compared to the switching behavior of the Bi-Mode Insulated Gate Transistor (BIGT). In addition design aspects of the LCS are discussed.