Swedish Neutral Earth Fault Neutralization Device (GFN)
Overview
REFCL is an advanced earth-fault mitigation technology based on the Ground Fault Neutralizer (GFN) developed by Swedish Neutral. It is designed to actively suppress phase-to-earth fault currents within milliseconds, preventing arc formation, sparks, and ignition risks.
By utilizing modern power electronics and intelligent control systems, REFCL neutralizes earth-fault current at its source instead of relying on conventional disconnection. This makes it highly effective in overhead line networks as well as in industrial and urban cable systems, where most faults initially occur as single-phase-to-earth events.
REFCL enhances network safety, maintains supply continuity during transient faults, and prevents fault escalation into multi-phase failures.
The GFN system consists of three separate components;
- Arc Suppression Coil (Petersen Coil)
- Control System (Neutral Manager)
- Residual Current Compensator (RCC Inverter)
Under normal conditions, the GFN system continuously measures shunt admittance and stores this information.
When an earth fault occurs, these admittances change according to the normal operating condition and the fault condition is detected.
The coil value, which will reduce the capacitive current to the minimum value, is adjusted in order to detect the fault.
The GFN system includes a petersen coil connected between the neutral point of the power system and ground. Thanks to the system that constantly monitors the network, the petersen coil compensates the fault current by generating an inductive reactive current against the capacitive fault current at the time of fault.
At the same time, thanks to its power electronics-based residual current compensator, it also has the feature of absorbing the resistive residual fault current that the petersen coil cannot absorb and poses a risk.
TECHNICAL DOCUMENT
| Brand |
Swedish Neutral |
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