On Aug 18–20 an 80 kV modular HVDC breaker was successfully tested at the KEMA test laboratory in Arnhem, Netherlands. The test was carried out as part of the PROMOTioN project, which gathers all main HVDC players in Europe, and aims to accelerate the development of meshed offshore HVDC grids. The capability of interrupting fault currents was tested. This is needed in HVDC grids to rapidly clear faults. It was shown that the breaker is capable of interrupting fault currents of up to 15 kA against a returning voltage of 120 kV within 2 ms, and 12 kA in less than 1.5 ms. Suppression energies up to 2.5 MJ were tested.
– This was a very important step in showing the capabilities of the Scibreak VARC circuit breaker technology. We are most grateful for the excellent collaboration with KEMA and the other partners in the PROMOTiON project says Scibreak CTO Tomas Modeer.
One of the tests was live-streamed on Aug 19. A recording from the live stream can be seen here.