The investigation of superconductor fault current limiters and research of availability in electrical transmission systems

The faults in power systems occur from various reasons, sometimes. High current levels caused by such faults, generally comprise a hazardous situation for system and elements of the system. Limiting of fault currents mean to protect the system and the system components from challenging thermal and dynamic effects of these currents. In the literature there are several fault current limiting methods. Although these methods are generally different from each other, the common goal is to ensure system safety and reliability. Importance of fault current limiters is increasing gradually in power systems that is continuously improving. By using fault current limiters can be provided operation continuity without any change in the existing system. In this study, operating principles and structures of the fault current limiting methods have been investigated besides the superconducting fault current limiters (SFCL) were discussed in detail. Their availability in electric power transmission systems have been investigated by simulations in MATLAB-Simulink using IEEE 14 buses system and impacts of SFCL on the system were shown with waveforms. Moreover, instead of SFCL in the same conditions and the same fault situations was repeated simulations using current limiting reactors and the results were compared.