Power Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation to Verify Protection Coordination for DC Microgrid

In this work, power hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) simulation was used to explore the protection coordination of solid-state-circuit-breakers (SSCB) with conventional mechanical circuit-breakers (CB) within a DC microgrid. The system of interest (SOI) includes diesel generators, AC loads, DC loads, power converters and battery-based and ultra-capacitor-based energy storage. The system also includes a mix of current-limiting converters and passive sources of fault current contribution. Using PHIL simulation, the generators, loads, power converters, and the developed circuit-protection-control were simulated on a real-time simulator and interfaced to the hardware-of-interest (HOI) which included developed SSCBs and CBs. Multiple experiments were executed to explore the operation of fast-acting SSCBs in conjunction with conventional switchboard-oriented protection in a system.