In order to reduce the cost and technical difficulty of the existing solid state fault current limiter

we propose the topology of a kind of novel solid state fault current limiter

which is composed of thyristors and current limiting reactors. In normal operation of the power system

the currents of reactors flow thought thyristors

and the magnetization processes near the peak value of the line current are very short

which have a negligible influence on the power system. When short circuit fault occurs

the current limiting reactors can automatically limit the peak of the short circuit current before the control and protect system sending out current limiting command. Through removing the thyristors’ trigger signals

the value of short circuit current in a steady state can be limited. Full control devices are not needed

thus the scheme has simple structure and high reliability. The effectiveness of the topology is validated by actual system simulation

and the merits in cost are proved by comparison with the bridge type solid state fault current limiter.