Abstract: The short-circuit fault current brings harm to the safety, stability and economic operation of power system. The installation of a fault current limiter can rapidly and effectively limit the short-circuit fault current, which has a good application prospect in power grid short-circuit fault suppression. In this paper, a new type of fault current limiter based on self-driving rheostat is proposed, which possesses a very low loss in normal operation. When the short circuit occurs, the peak value of the first half wave can be limited without utilizing any detection device and auxiliary switch. Firstly, the operation and process of the current limiter are analyzed theoretically, and the finite element model is established based on COMSOL to model and simulate the movement and force of the current limiter's self-driving process. And the change of electromagnetic environment of the device caused by short-circuit current is studied. Then, the short-circuit fault simulation model of oscillating current source is established based on PSCAD/EMTDC, and the current limiting effect of the new fault current limiter is successfully verified by simulation. Finally, a prototype is manufactured and is tested by building test circuits. The experimental results show that, when the expected peak current is 15 kA, the new fault current limiter based on self-driving rheostat can limit the peak fault current of the first half wave from 15.6 kA to 14.51 kA at 4.2 ms. In this paper, the feasibility of the new current limiter is verified by simulation and test, and the current limiting effect is obvious, which can provide technical reference for engineering application.