Solid State Breakers

[Open Neutral]

https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a27557804/digital-circuit-breaker/

Skip the story; the https://www.atompower.com/ cite is the only thing worth pursuing.

About Atom Power
Circuit breakers manage the flow of electricity and protect us from the immense hazards of surging electrical currents.

Yet something so integral to the safe and reliable distribution of power hasn’t meaningfully changed since Edison’s lab.

Circuit breakers have been mechanical for as long as they’ve existed. Until now.

The modern world has outgrown the risks and constraints of traditional circuit breakers. To meet our evolving needs, Atom Power built the world’s first and only true solid-state circuit breaker. By using semiconductors to control the current digitally, Atom Power’s breakthrough marks a quantum leap for power distribution and consumption.

 

[Tony S]

These are being peddled in the UK. The problem lies with BS7671 where solid state switching for protection is not permitted, there has to be a definitive break.

As an experiment UKPN (United Kingdom Power Networks) tried internet controlled breakers on London’s LV network The experiment was called FUN (Flexible Urban Networks) it enabled loads to be transferred between substations. It worked quite well but the cost killed the project.

 

[Coppersmith]

According to the article, circuit breakers reside in a "fuse box"

 

[Jraef]

Quantum leap? That’s a stretch... in the old system, power flowed from the utility source to the loads. In this new system, does it do something that is a “quantum leap” different from that?