Characterization of a Countercurrent Injection-Based HVDC Circuit Breaker

The scope of this paper is a precise analysis of countercurrent injection-assisted HVDC circuit breaking. The considered topology consists of an outer diode rectifier for unipolar switching operations and an inner power electronic circuit breaker built using series-connected resonant circuits, which combine the Marx generator principle for voltage scaling and existing thyristor commutation circuitry for enhanced IGCT turn off. Toward the integration of an HVDC system, comparatively unique application demands such as current stresses, energy absorption characteristics, or transient voltage resilience during breaking operations require the evaluation of its fitness, including individual component rating limitations. Therefore, the characterization of the breaker's switching behavior at relevant abstraction levels is undertaken within this work, giving a detailed overview of technical features and even some specific dimensioning criteria. The advantageous features of the associated proposal in terms of adaptability are investigated, and the opportunity for an increase in the breaker's maximum current interruption capability is thereby outlined. General realization challenges are highlighted and verified by simulations using MATLAB Simulink and PLECS Blockset.