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| Overview: |
- With power demand on the rise and new power generation sources being added, the grid has become overcrowded and vulnerable to catastrophic faults. Faults are abnormal flows of electrical current like a short circuit. As the grid is stressed, faults and power blackouts increase in frequency and severity.
- SFCLs act like powerful surge protectors, preventing harmful faults from taking down substation equipment by reducing the fault current to a safer level (20 – 50% reduction) so that the existing switchgear can still protect the grid.
- Currently, electrical-utilities use massive 80kA circuit breakers, oversized transformers and fuses to prevent faults from damaging their equipment and protecting against surges. However, once a fault has occurred, standard circuit breakers suffer destructive failure and need to be replaced before service can be restored.
- Smart grid and embedded generation enhancements will increase the need for SCFLs.
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| Benefits of Superconducting Fault Current Limiter: |
- Protects against damaging fault currents and blackouts.
- Enhanced system safety, stability, and efficiency.
- Improved system reliability when renewables are added.
- Significantly lower capex than a sub-station upgrade.
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| Resistive SFCLs making headway:
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- Compact in size and weight while designed to utilize the resistive
properties of HTS wire to eliminate fault.
- Scale from medium (35 kV) to high (138 kV) voltages and operate at higher temperatures (77 K).
- An estimated 15 to 30 kilometers of 2G HTS wire is required per three phase device.
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| Market Forecast: |
- Approximately 250,000 substations exist worldwide.
- United States DOE estimates the market size for SFCLs at several billion dollars over the next 15 years.
- Smart grid and embedded generation enhancements will increase the need for SCFLs.
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