Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability High-Temperature Superconductivity for Electric Systems Plugging America Into the Future of Power HIGH -TEMPERA T URE SUPERCONDUC T IVI T Y (HTS) has the potential for achieving a more fundamental change to electric power technologies than has occurred since the use of electricity became widespread nearly a century ago. In many ways, the transmission and distribution of electricity are poised for advancement the way that the Internet was poised for its takeoff in the 1990s. The HTS program partners with Just as fiber optics enabled the manufacturers, laboratories, utilities, “information superhighway” and universities across the country by supplanting lower-capacity copper, superconductivity is enabling an “energy superhighway” by supplanting copper electrical conductors with a ceramic superconducting alternative that has higher capacity while eliminating resistive losses. BENE F I ts O F HTS PO W ER APPLICA T ION S Increased grid reliability and security by providing efficient power interconnections with high capacity Minimal environmental impact: HTS cables can be readily permitted and installed in dense urban areas “In order to meet President Obama’s ambitious energy Low-impedance design enables dynamic control of alternating current power goals, we must modernize flow, alleviating grid congestion the nation’s electrical Reduced right-of-way requirements (smaller footprint) grid to improve the transmission, storage and Superconducting fault current limiters do not add impedance to the circuit reliability of clean energy during normal operation across the country and help to move renewable energy THE SUPERCONDUC T IVI T Y PROGRAM HA S T HREE FOCU S AREA S : from the places it can be produced to the places it SUPERCONDUC T IVI T Y APPLICA T ION S can be used. By increasing Developing HTS-based electric power equipment transmission capacity such as transmission and distribution cables and and operators’ ability to control the movement of fault current limiters electricity, high-temperature SECOND -GENERA T ION WIRE DEVELOPMEN T superconductivity will help reduce electricity losses Developing high-performance, low-cost, second- and save energy nationally,” generation HTS wire at long lengths — Energy Secretary ST RA T EGIC RE S EARCH Steven Chu Supporting fundamental research activities to Superconductivity Program Overview better understand relationships between the microstructure of HTS materials and their ability to carry large electric currents over long lengths A spool of HTS tape www.oe.energy.gov Phone: 202-586-1411 Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, OE-1 U.S. Department of Energy – 1000 Independence Avenue, SW – Washington, DC 20585 PROGRAM MI ss ION : On June 27, 2007, the Department of Energy The Office of Electricity (DOE) announced that it will provide up to Delivery and Energy Reliability’s $51.8 Million to support five Superconduct- ing Power Equipment (SPE) projects. Two Superconductivity Program’s distribution of the projects are cables, and the remaining and specific mission is to work in three are fault current limiters. transmission partnership with industry to networks. Under normal develop HTS wire and perform SUPERCONDUC T ING CA B LE S circumstances, they are other research and development Superconducting cables are cooled invisible to the system, having activities leading to the cryogenically to remove the resistance to the nearly zero resistance to the steady- commercialization of flow of electricity, cutting down on the losses state current, but when there is an HTS-based electric power that typically occur during transmission. In excess of electricity, otherwise known addition to the three current DOE-funded applications by U.S. companies as a fault current, the FCL intervenes and cable projects located in Albany, NY, Long dissipates the surge, thus protecting the other Island, NY, and Columbus, OH, two new transmission equipment on the line. SPE projects were announced: PROGRAM GOAL S : The following are the three new superconducting • Southwire Company (Carrollton, GA) By 2020, develop prototype wire power equipment FCL projects: will use a 13.8-kilovolt superconducting • SC Power Systems (San Mateo, CA) will achieving 1,000,000 length-critical cable to connect two design, test, and demonstrate a 138-kilovolt, current (A-m) for second-generation existing substation saturable, reactor-type FCL. In this type of wire sites and solve a limiter, a high-temperature superconductor real-world electrical is used with a direct current power supply to By 2014, produce high-temperature load problem saturate an iron core that interfaces with the superconductive coil that operates near downtown line in which the current is to be limited. in applied magnetic fields up to 5 New Orleans. The Tesla at 65 K for HTS applications cable will connect • American Superconductor will address the the LaBarre and development and in-grid testing of a three- By 2012, verify operating Metaire substations, phase, 115-kilovolt fault characteristics and reliability of owned by Entergy current limiter, called a SuperLimiterTM, using high-capacity HTS cables for Corporation of Cutaway view second-generation wire. distribution-level systems and gain New Orleans, LA, a member of of an HTS The SuperLimiterTM industry acceptability cable system Southwire’s project features a proprietary Siemens-developed, By 2012, establish design rules team. The team also includes: DOE’s Oak Ridge National low-inductance coil based on the full characterization of Laboratory and nkt cables of technology that makes mechanical and electrical properties Germany. the limiter invisible to Cutaway view of an of existing and new dielectric the grid until it switches • American Superconductor HTS cable system materials at cryogenic temperatures to a resistive state. Corporation (Westborough, MA) Fault current limiter testing will develop the key components • SuperPower Inc. required to commercially deploy (Schenectady, NY) will design, test, and dem- PROGRAM MANAGER : second-generation, high-temperature onstrate a 138-kilovolt limiter that features a Debbie Haught superconductor cables and demonstrate a matrix design consisting of parallel, second- 202.586.2211 single-phase prototype cable in the Long generation high-temperature superconductive [email protected] Island Power Authority power grid. In (HTS) elements and conventional coils. addition to the power authority, American Superconductor’s team includes: Nexans (France) and Air Liquide Advanced Technologies U.S. LLC (Houston, TX). SUPERCONDUC T ING FAUL T CURREN T LIMITERS Superconducting fault current limiters (FCLs) insert an impedance in a conductor when there is a surge of current on utility REVISION DATE : 07/14/09 HIG H TEMPE R ATU R E SUPE R CON D UCTIVITY FO R ELECT R IC SYSTEMS .