Superconducting Fault Current Limiter

SFCL

OVERVIEW
Introduction.
Why SFCL?
Modelling of SFCL.
Doubly-Fed Induction Generator
(DFIG) Characteristics.

INTRODUCTION
With the increase of electricity demand and change of concerning
environment, the capabilities of renewable energy generation
systems are being expanded.

Renewable energy sources considered as clean and prospective

energy sources of the future world.
12% of worlds electricity is generated from wind power.

The wind-turbine generation system (WTGs) is a representative

renewable energy system.
Does not cause pollution problem.
Lowest maintenance cost.

Why SFCL?
Superconducting Fault Current Limiter
(SFCL):
Reduces the peak value of fault current.

Improves the transient stability of the power

system.

Provides the system effective damping for lowfrequency oscillations.

Connection of SFCL to an electric power

grid:

Optimal place to install the SFCL.

Optimal resistive value of the SFCL
occurred in series with a transmission line
during a short circuit fault.
Potential protection-coordination problem
with other existing protective devices such
as circuit breakers.

Modelling Of SFCL
Modelling of a resistive (non-inductive winding)
SFCL.

Consists of:
Stabilizer resistance of the n-th unit, Rns.

Superconductor resistance of the n-th unit,

Rnc(t) connected with Rns in parallel.

Coil inductance of the n-th unit, Ln.

Structure of a resistive SFCL:

 Normal steady state condition, the values of Rnc(t)

and Rns(t) are normally zero.

Total resistance of parallel connection becomes

zero in steady state condition.

Total resistance (Rsfcl) of the SFCL during fault

depends on total number of units in series.

Value of Ln determined by the wound coils.

Expression to describe quenching and

recovery characteristics:

Rm - Maximum resistance of superconducting

coil in the normal state
Tsc - Time constant of transition from
superconducting state to normal state
(Tsc = 1ms)

Doubly-Fed Induction
Generator (DFIG)
Induction generator widely used as wind generators

Brushless and rugged construction.

Low cost.

Maintenance free.

 Two types of wind generator topologies :

Fixed speed wind generator.

Variable speed wind generator.

DFIG mostly used as variable speed wind

generator.

DFIG wind turbines are based on wound-rotor

induction machines where rotor circuit is fed
through back-to-back voltage source converters.

General control scheme for the DFIG

system in Power Factory:

 DFIG generator model is a built-in model which

integrates the induction machine and rotor-side
converter (RSC).

DFIG and RSC modelled in rotor reference frame

(RRF) rotating at generator speed.

RSC controller operates in a stator flux-oriented

reference frame (SFRF) rotating at synchronous
speed.

RSC control modifies the active (P) and reactive (Q)

Equations for modelling DFIG :

- flux linkage
- base angular speed
- stator electrical angular speed

Active and reactive powers transferred to stator, can

be computed by :

System Configurations
For Two Case Studies
Single-Machine Infinite Bus System
(SMIB)

 System consists of one DFIG and a transmission

system connected to an infinite bus.

SFCL is located between the DFIG and the infinite bus.

Power scale of wind farm by the DFIG is 9MW.

Capacitive bank is used.

Wind speed is fixed as 10 m/s.

 Proper value of SFCL will guarantee enough time

intervals for adequate protective coordination
between multiple OCRs.

Too small value of Rsfcl :

SFCL cannot provide desirable damping
performance for low- frequency oscillations during
a fault.

IEEE Benchmarked four-machine

two-area test system
System consists of AREA 1 and AREA 2 linked
together by two 230kv transmission line of lengths
220km.

Each area equipped with two identical synchronous

generators of 20 kv/900 MVA.

Each generator produces active power of 700 MW.

IEEE benchmark four machine two-area system with

the WTGs

 SFCL located next to Wind Turbine Generation

System (WTGs) based on DFIG of 9 MW
connected to bus 4 in AREA 2.

A 100 ms three-phase short-circuit current applied

to bus 4 at 0.1s, performance of SFCL to improve
low-frequency oscillation damping is evaluated.

Wind speed is fixed as 10 m/s.

Resistance of Rsfcl is 30 in normal stage of

SFCL.

SFCL Performance
Case study on SMIB system

 SMIB system without SFCL :

Rotor speed increased by the fault and settles slowly after

clearing the fault.

Terminal voltage drops from 1 pu to 0.4 pu

Output active power response shows large oscillations from

2 pu to 1.2 pu.

a-phase current of WTGs increases to 2.34 pu at its

maximum.

 SMIB system with SFCL :

Variations of output active power dramatically reduced and

rapidly damped.

Power scale of WTGs can be extended by the SFCL.

a-phase current almost same as that of steady state

operation.

Response of a-phase current of WTGs

Case study on Multi-Machine Power

system

 System without SFCL :

Rotor speed increases up to 1.0035 pu at its maximum.

Takes very long time to restore its original steady-state

value.

Transient variations for the terminal voltage and active

power responses of WTGs are more severe .

Peak value of a-phase current increases up to 2.2 pu after

the fault.

 System with SFCL :

Peak value of a-phase current is 0.51 pu.

SFCL extends the scale of WTGs in multi-machine power

systems.

Response of a-phase current of WTGs

Effect Of WTGs On
Power
WTGs increase
the level ofGrid
short-circuit current if there
are no any protective devices.

Response of a-phase current flowing from bus 4 for the second

 Peak value of the fault current from 0.1 s to 0.2 s

without WTGs is less than that with WTGs for both
case studies.

System more sensitive to fault.

Effect Of SFCL On
Overcurrent Relay Operation
Overcurrent relay (OCR) is a protective relay.
OCRs must guarantee :
Fast operation
Reliability
Selectivity
OCRs has inverse time characteristics.
OCRs has specific rated short-circuit current.

(a) Distribution system with the DG, the SFCL, and two
OCRs
(b) Operation characteristics of OCR-1 and OCR-2
according to the alteration of the power system

 Multiple OCRs have required coordination time

in steady-state condition.

If short circuit current increases over a rated

value of OCR-2, results in its malfunction.

To solve the problem :

SFCL is applied with the distribution
generation.

SFCL reduce the level of short-circuit current

during a fault.

CONCLUSION
SFCL provides quick system protection during a
severe fault.
Effectiveness of SFCL as protective device is
verified with several case studies.
Simulation results showed that SFCL reduces the
level of short-circuit current which is increased by
WTGs.
Provides main advantage to avoid changing the
ratings of multiple protective devices.

REFERENCES
S. M. Muyeen, R. Takahashi, M. H. Ali, T. Murata, and J. Tamura,
Transient stability augmentation of power system including wind
farms by using ECS, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 23, no. 3, pp.
11791187, Aug. 2008.
M. Kayikci and J. V. Milanovic, Assessing transient response of
DFIG-based wind plants-the influence of model simplifications and
parameters, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 545554,
May 2008.
L. Ye, M. Majoros, T. Coombs, and A. M. Campbell, System studies
of the superconducting fault current limiter in electrical distribution
grid, IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 23392342,
Jun. 2007.
B. C. Sung, D. K. Park, J.-W. Park, and T. K. Ko, Study on optimal
location of a resistive SFCL applied to an electric power grid, IEEE
Trans. Appl. Supercond., vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 20482052, Jun. 2009.