Experimental Evaluation of Dielectric Losses of PPLP for Single Phase HTS Cable at Subcooled LN₂ Temperatures

Abstract

For the operation of high-temperature superconducting (HTS) power cables in liquid nitrogen (LN2 ) at high voltage levels, there is a need for reliable and cost-effective insulating materials. This article investigates the dielectric losses in poly-propylene laminated paper (PPLP- Sumitomo) which is used as a cold dielectric for HTS cables. To calculate the dielectric losses, an experimental setup was developed to measure the relative permittivity of PPLP at different temperatures from 65 to 300 K at various frequencies. Using an in-house developed experimental setup, the dielectric loss for different layers of PPLP, at various temperatures and operating frequencies was estimated to evaluate one of the criteria of cold dielectric material and the same was compared with the data at room temperature. The temperature was reduced to 65 K using a vacuum pump-assisted sub-cooling system. The effective relative permittivity increases marginally for subcooled LN2 impregnated PPLP, however there is reduction in tan delta loss which in turn reduces the dielectric loss and is useful for high voltage HTS based AC cables. This paper provides a comparative study on PPLP performance variation with respect to operating temperature and frequency.