Bidirectional Solid-State DC Circuit Breaker for the Protection of Residential and Commercial DC Buildings

In most cities, commercial and residential buildings consume a substantial amount of energy and contribute significantly to rising carbon emissions. With the proliferation of renewable energy sources at the distribution end and increased energy efficiency standards, dc residential and commercial buildings are gaining popularity. Because of advancements in power electronic technology, it is now possible to realize interconnection and interaction of distributed generators, energy storage systems, and loads via a dc distribution system, making dc commercial and residential buildings more practical. However, the protection of the dc system remains a challenge. This paper proposes a bidirectional solid-state dc circuit breaker (DCCB) for fast and reliable protection of the dc buildings. The proposed topology provides protection against both short-circuit and overload events and has a manual triggering option for interrupting steady-state currents under maintenance. The laboratory prototype is built and validated for the system rating of 350 V and 10A.