A circuit interruption device including first and second terminals for connection, to a respective electrical circuit or network, a current-conductive branch including first, second, and third current-conductive branch portions successively connected in series between the first and second terminals, the first current-conductive branch portion including a first switching element, the second current-conductive branch portion including a second switching element, the third current-conductive branch portion including a third switching element, each switching element configured to be switchable to selectively permit and block a flow of current in the respective current-conductive branch portion, first and second current bypass paths, the first current bypass path connected across the first and second current-conductive branch portions, the second current bypass path connected across the second and third current-conductive branch portions, and a controller configured to selectively control the switching of the switching elements to control a flow of current between the first and second terminals.

A protection IC protects an external load connected to mains supply lines from dangerous or undesired conditions such as overvoltage, undervoltage, and overcurrent, by disconnecting the external load for at least the duration of such a condition. The IC has a range detector, a zero-crossing detector, a control unit, a switch driver, and a dummy DAC. The range detector senses the presence of an unwanted condition. The control unit then waits for a zero crossing, upon which it disconnects the load. A lockout timer may introduce a minimum wait time before reconnecting the load. To prevent instabilities around the switching points, hysteresis in the window thresholds prevents impact from noise. The dummy DAC regulates a dummy current that linearizes the IC's current consumption around the switching points to prevent instabilities caused by positive feedback in non-linear transitions.

The invention provides an over-current protection system. The over-current protection system includes a sensing device, a comparator, a first transistor, and a second transistor. The sensing device is adapted to sense a current flowing to an electrical device. The comparator is adapted to compare a signal received from the sensing device and a reference signal to generate any one of a high signal and a low signal, wherein the output of the comparator is connected to a control device. The first transistor is connected to the output signal of the comparator to control the first transistor, wherein the first transistor is in a conductive state when the output signal of the comparator is a high signal. The second transistor is connected to and controlled by the first transistor, wherein the second transistor is in a conductive state when the first transistor is in the conductive state.

A current interrupting device includes a current limiting element on a power supply path from a predetermined power supply to a load device. The current limiting element is configured to exhibit a current limiting action when current flowing in the power supply path exceeds a first current threshold value. The current interrupting device further includes a current diversion path switch, and a controller programmed to control on and off of the current diversion path switch. The controller is programmed to switch a current diversion path switch on from an off state when it is detected that current flowing in the current limiting element is limited to a second current threshold value after the current flowing in the current limiting element has exceeded the first current threshold value, and switch the switch off again after a predetermined switched-on holding time has elapsed since the switch has been switched on.

Within a direct current hybrid circuit breaker (DC HCB), a capacitance is provided in a semiconductor switch path in series with a semiconductor switch and the semiconductor switch is in parallel with a surge arrestor to facilitate opening the DC HCB. The semiconductor switch path is connected in parallel with a mechanical switch path that includes a mechanical switch. The circuit causes the current through the mechanical switch to ramp down while the current through the semiconductor switch ramps up to a supply current. The mechanical switch can open without current and against no recovery voltage.

A circuit breaker has line-side terminals and load-side terminals for conductors of a low-voltage circuit. A mechanical break contact system is connected to the line-side terminals for indirect-coupling of the low-voltage circuit, and the other end of the break contact system is connected to an electronic interruption unit which has, by use of semiconductor-based switching elements, a high-impedance state of the switching elements to prevent current from flowing and a low-impedance state of the switching elements to allow current to flow in the low-voltage circuit. The electronic interruption unit is connected to the load-side terminals at the other end. The mechanical break contact system can be manually actuated such that contacts of the mechanical break contact system can be manually closed to allow current to flow and be manually opened to interrupt the flow of current in the low-voltage circuit.

A controllable main breaker includes a main breaker sized to fit within an existing panel slot of an electrical panel. The main breaker comprises a trigger to open the main breaker in response to a thermal fault or overcurrent event. The controllable main breaker further includes an auxiliary shell sized to fit within at least one adjacent breaker slot. The auxiliary shell includes a controllable actuator that mechanically opens the main breaker.

A circuit breaker includes an electromechanical switch, a current sensor, a voltage sensor, and a processor. The electromechanical switch is serially connected between a line input terminal and a load output terminal of the circuit breaker, and configured to be placed in a switched-closed state or a switched-open state. The current sensor is configured to sense a magnitude of current flowing in a path between the line input and load output terminals and generate a current sense signal. The voltage sensor is configured to sense a magnitude of voltage at a point on the path between the line input and load output terminals and generate a voltage sense signal. The processor is configured to receive and process the current sense signal and the voltage sense signal to determine operational status information of the circuit breaker and determine power usage information of a load connected to the load output terminal.

An electrical protection method for detecting an electrical fault in an electrical installation includes: measuring electrical variables by way of an auxiliary protection device, the electrical variables being associated with phase conductors; automatically analysing the measured electrical variables in order to identify a condition representative of a short circuit between phase conductors; detecting an electrical fault, such as a short circuit between the three electrical phases associated with the phase conductors without any neutral conductor involved, based on the measured electrical variables; triggering the opening of a switching device of the auxiliary protection device when an electrical fault is identified in order to disconnect one of the phase conductors, the switching device being connected to one of the phase conductors.

Systems and methods performed by a fault detection apparatus for fault detection and localization in distribution feeders having branches and nodes. The method including receive feeder raw data in a feeder of a power system. Process the feeder raw data with given operational electrical characteristics of the feeder to generate a branch attribute dataset for each branch separated by a pair of nodes for all branches. Generate a node attribute dataset for each node for all the nodes in the feeder. Input the branch and node attribute datasets into a trained neural network to determine whether a branch has a fault and a fault location within the branch, to output a classification of the fault and the fault location. Generate an alert signal based upon determining the classified fault and fault location in response to the alert signal to an outage response system.