Detection and Mitigation of Electrical Faults in Medium Voltage DC (MVDC) Architectures

A novel combination of power electronics and electromechanical contactors is proposed to perform of sensing and fault protection in a Medium Voltage DC distribution system. This will reduce the electromechanical component ratings and size while providing both input to output galvanic isolation during operation and mechanical contact isolation and grounding of downstream equipment following a fault and for repair and maintenance activity. Satcon proposes under this SBIR to evaluate the basic building block converter / contactor configuration to characterize the performance as an electrical fault detector and mitigator for MVDC based systems. This evaluation will include both the semiconductor devices and other power electronic components as well as isolating and grounding electromechanical devices. Potential commercialization applications will be considered in both near term and further out scenarios for the spread of DC techniques into the commercial power distribution field.