Development of a high current HVDC circuit breaker with fast fault clearing capability

Significant improvements have been made in a previously developed 500 kV, 2000 a HVDC circuit breaker. These improvements have increased the current interrupting capabilities to 4000 A DC and more and have decreased the fault clearing time to the order of AC breakers of similar voltage ratings. The result is a HVDC circuit breaker that is built using well-proven AC power system components. It is modular in design so as to be suitable for a wide range of system voltages and energy levels.>