Investigation of Technologies for Fault Level Management in Future Distribution Networks

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The decarbonisation of heat is an increasingly important issue for the UK, requiring expanded use of district heating and distributed Combined Heat and Power (CHP). However, fault level constraints are becoming a barrier to connecting new distributed generation in urban areas, and with plans for increased local generation, especially CHP, the already limited headroom in substations will be quickly exhausted. Traditional reinforcement techniques are used to incorporate new distributed generation, making this financially unattractive to developers.Different technologies and research is ongoing, to find a solution suitable to distribution network operators. At the distribution level, the fault level plays an important role in the overall safe operation of the network, including protection co-ordination. UKPN's project, called PowerFuL-CB, aims to trial two novel fault limiting circuit breaker devices on the London 11 kV network, one being developed by ABB, for deployment in substations, the other from Applied Materials (AMAT), designed for use at distributed generation plant sites. Main objectives of the PhD project include the following:1. Contribution towards understanding of fault level (or fault current) requirements for distribution networks, integrating with low carbon technologies such as CHP, Power park modules and EVs.2. Investigation of different technologies for fault current generation (e.g. use of thyristors as additional current paths) and limitation techniques (e.g. IS limiter, Active Fault De-coupler, FLCB etc) in medium voltage (11kV) distribution network.3. Investigate the evolution of protection systems, to work better with power electronic devices by moving away from normally used over-current detection in distribution networks and gaining further understanding of voltage and impedance of the circuit.4. Explore improvement opportunities in power system protection, as we move towards a more meshed distribution network