Powerful CB: Power Electronic Fault Limiting Circuit Breaker

What is the project about?

Combined heat and power generators, known as CHP, are a really efficient way of heating a building and generating electricity at the same time.

They’re becoming especially popular in big cities, in places like hospitals and can play a role in district heating and community energy projects too.

The Greater London Authority has an aspiration for demand for the power from highly-efficient Combined Heat and Power (CHP) units to rise as we move to a decarbonised energy system.

UK Power Networks wants to make sure we can enable all of this additional power to connect safely to the electricity network, without having to spend lots of our customers’ money on upgrading network capacity.

The Fault Limiting Circuit Breaker (FLCB) is a solid state circuit breaker that is 20 times faster than anything that has ever been seen before.

This high speed operation provides extra protection for the electricity network, and its smaller size means it can fit into dense urban areas where space is a premium, allowing many more CHP units to connect before the network needs to be  .

If it’s successful, the device could save customers nationwide £400m. By enabling CHP generators to connect to our network more quickly and at lower cost, innovation at UKPN is supporting the transition to a low carbon economy.