In 2008/09 Nexans SuperConductors GmbH made the step from R&D activities to the production of the first non-publicly funded fault-current limiter units. In close cooperation with two customers, Applied Superconductor Limited (ASL, UK) and Vattenfall (Germany), Nexans was able to design, produce and deliver two resistive superconducting limiter devices. Both devices are designed for the medium voltage grid and were tested at the high voltage and high power lab IPH in Berlin. The superconducting components of both limiters, coils of bulk MCP BSCCO-2212, have been designed and produced by Nexans.

No abstract

No abstract

In recent years significant progress has been made in the development of high temperature superconducting (HTS) power devices, in particular cables and fault current limiters. Several field tests of large scale prototypes for both applications have been successfully accomplished and the technologies are getting closer to commercialization. In this paper the German AmpaCity project will be introduced and its objectives will be described. Furthermore, the conceptual design of the HTS cable system and the major developments which have been achieved so far, as well as the current status of the project will be reported.

Nexans SuperConductors GmbH (NSC) has successfully designed, built and tested the first two HTS Fault Current Limiter (FCL) systems on a commercial basis for two different application cases in Europe. Both systems are live in the customer grids since last quarter of 2009: The first one is installed in UK where it acts as a bus bar coupler in a MV grid. The second one is protecting the auxiliary supply of a brown coal power station in Germany.The superconducting components are based on bulk melt cast processed BSCCO-2212 material. NSC masters the full product chain for the new systems starting from raw material powder, via HTS tubes, FCL components and modules to the complete systems. For the second system, NSC has also integrated the ancillary equipment for cooling and has successfully commissioned the system at the customer site.Prior to field installation both systems were intensively tested at the independent and certified test lab IPH in Berlin. The paper gives an overview of both systems, reports on first experiences from field operation and depicts perspectives for the future.Index Terms-Superconducting fault current limiter.