Phase-selective interruption for three-phase AC circuits with Thomson coil actuated switches and breakers

A system and method for interrupting power in a three-phase power system interrupts power in the faulted phase and the next sequential phase at high speeds, while interrupting power in the remaining phase at a normal operation speed. Limiting high-speed interruption to only two phases requires significantly less energy storage than implementing high-speed interruption in all three phases. When hybrid circuit interrupters are used, the need to wait for a zero-crossing in the current signal in order to initiate interruption operations is eliminated.