Triggered vacuum switch-based fault current limiter

A new type of fault current limiter (FCL) is proposed based on the triggered vacuum switch (TVS). The TVS-based FCL (TFCL) is mainly composed of a capacitor, a current-limiting reactor connected with the capacitor in series, and a TVS connected with the capacitor in parallel. With TVS at the “off” or “on” state, the whole TFCL behaves as conventional series compensation or fault current limitation, respectively. Compared with other types of FCLs, such as superconductivity, thyristor/GTO-based FCL, TFCL is distinguished by its characteristics, such as high capacity, loss free, and low price. The digital simulation and prototype experiment based on the LC resonant test circuit show that it is feasible to develop TFCL