I applied today for ARPA-E funding for Ballistic Circuit Breaker

Excerpts from the Application I filed today:

title: HVDC Transmission Ring with HVDC Circuit Breakers to Assure Redundant Linking of Regional Generation and Storage for Grid Stabilization

Abstract

HVDC rings have the desirable property that they have intrinsic redundancy; any two taps are connected in both directions. Eckroad (US patent 7,518,266) shows only three DC/DC choppers in his ring buss (containing 17 total taps). This requires blacking out multiple power taps between the choppers in a fault. We propose a DC ring as suggested by Eckroad, but with DC ballistic circuit breakers on the main loop, between each pair of taps.