Evaluation of existing DC protection solutions on the performance of an active LVDC distribution network under different fault conditions

Low Voltage Direct Current (LVDC) distribution is one of the new promising technologies that has been introduced for the integration of renewables and powering certain applications. However, DC protection is still considered as one of the outstanding challenges that hold back the wide deployment of LVDC in the last mile utility applications. Most of existing DC solutions have been designed for specific application, however, their suitability for providing a good level of protection and safety for an LVDC last mile distribution network is still not clear. Therefore, this paper extensively evaluates the performances of different DC protection solutions on an active LVDC last mile distribution network with local generation sources (including PVs and battery storages). Based on the findings, recommendations of LVDC protection are presented in the paper for the resilient operation of future LVDC last mile distribution networks.