Analysis of resistive SFCL in a test-bed microgrid

This paper tests and analyzes the working capability of a resistive superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) in a microgrid. The microgrid is a test-bed, consisting of a conventional power plant, two renewable energy sources in the form of wind-farm and solar-farm as two distributed generation (DG) units and five loads (i.e., industrial and domestic). Utilization of DG in mainstream is increasing and hence, various consequences that arise from DG penetration are to be considered accordingly. It is observed that DG penetration in existing distribution alters the fault current during a grid disturbance and hence imbalances the system. Based on this, the research work focuses on contribution of fault current from renewable energy sources in a microgrid, and how resistive SFCL offers positive result in minimizing the fault levels. The test-bed is modeled in MATLAB/Simulink, and simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of resistive SFCL during various fault conditions. (C) 2015 Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).