Impacts of Superconducting Fault Current Limiters on the Recloser Operation in Distribution Electric Power Systems

Superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) is a promising novel electric equipment to reduce excessive fault current in electric power systems effectively. However, in practical application of this novel device into electric networks, SFCL could cause some unfavorable impacts on the electric power system. Especially, coordination between the SFCL and the recloser which has a conventional protection scheme is a major concern because it could cause severe reliability and stability problems in power systems. Several important characteristics of SFCL, which affects on a recloser operation scheme, are quenching phenomena, recovery from the quenching state, limiting impedance and its triggering time. Therefore, careful assessment of coordination issues with a recloser should be investigated to evaluate reliabilities of electric power system by installing SFCL into conventional power networks. This paper presents the impacts of SFCL on the recloser operation by considering various aspects of newly developed hybrid resistive SFCL into distribution systems in Korea. Consequently, it was deduced that conventional recloser scheme might be altered in order to meet the performance and requirements of hybrid SFCL into distribution electric power systems.