International Workshop on Coated Conductors for Applications

program abstracts

Thursday, 1A-01, 4:20-4:35

HTS Cable Topical Overview

Michael J. Gouge

Oak Ridge National Laboratory
P.O. Box 2008, Oak Ridge, TN, USA 37831-6305
865-576-4467, 865-576-7770 (fax), gougemj@ornl.gov

High Temperature Superconducting (HTS) cables have been operating in industrial applications and on the electric grid throughout this decade and there is a growing database on their technical performance, cost and reliability. The following list highlights some major cable demonstrations in the US, Asia and Europe, starting with a pioneering low temperature superconducting (LTS) cable:

  • Brookhaven Cable: LTS, 330 MVA,138 kV (80 kV phase to ground), 1971-1986
  • Southwire, Carrollton: HTS Cold Dielectric, 27 MVA, 12 kV, 30-m, 1998-2006
  • Detroit, Pirelli/AMSC: HTS Warm Dielectric, 100 MVA, 24 kV, never on grid
  • SEI/TEPC Japan: HTS Cold Dielectric, 114 MVA, 66 kV, 100-m, 2001-2002
  • NKT-Copenhagen: HTS Warm Dielectric, 100 MVA, 30 kV, 30-m, 2001-2003
  • CRIEPI/Furukawa Electric: HTS Cold Dielectric, 77 kV, 1 kA, 500-m, 2004-2005
  • Albany, SuperPower/SEI: HTS Cold Dielectric, 48 MVA, 34.5 kV, 350-m, 2006-2008
  • KEPCO/KERI: HTS Cold Dielectric, 22.9 kV, 1.25 kA, 100-m, 2007
  • Columbus, Ultera: HTS Cold Dielectric, 69 MVA, 13.2 kV, 3 kA, 200-m, 2006-
  • LIPA, AMSC/Nexans: HTS Cold Dielectric, 215 MVA, 138 kV, 610-m, 2008-

Of interest to this conference, the SuperPower/SEI HTS cable had a 30-m long section made of SuperPower 2nd generation (2G) YBCO tapes retrofitted into the 350-m long cable. There were three YBCO conductor layers in the phase conductor and two in the shield conductor. This cable with the 2G section operated from January-April 2008. The highest phase current demonstrated to date is about 2700 Arms by the Columbus cable and the highest voltage is 138 kVrms by the LIPA cable, energized in April 2008. The longest length cable is the LIPA cable at 610-m with a recently approved cable project managed by Ultera near New Orleans, LA with a planned length of 1700-m. Outstanding issues in HTS cables include operation for longer demonstration periods on the grid to get better statistics on system availability; cost and reliability of cryogenic cooling systems and cable flexible cryostats; ac loss minimization and, for 2G cables, the impact of magnetic substrates on cable ac losses; splice/joint resistance/strength and cable/termination cryogenic dielectric insulation performance, especially at transmission level voltages (110 kV and higher).

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