Second Generation High-Temperature Superconducting Wires for Fault Current Limiter Applications

In this paper, we report the results from evaluation on the use of 2nd generation high-temperature superconducting wires, or 2G HTS conductors, as elements for superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL). The unique features of 2G HTS conductors such as high N-values, superior electromechanical performance, large surface area available for cooling, and their availability in long-lengths that could be produced by high-throughput and low-cost manufacturing, may provide advantages for SFCL applications. We tested SuperPower's standard ion-beam-assisted-deposition based 2G HTS conductors under various conditions. First, individual conductors 10-20 cm long with dc critical current (Ic) ranging from 180 amps to 277 amps were tested at prospective fault current up to 3 kA (peak). 2G HTS conductors demonstrated good fault current limiting performance, including first peak limitation. Quench current was in the range of 1.8 to 3 times Ic, and the response time was within 1 ms. Secondly, 3-5 conductors in parallel connections demonstrated uniform current sharing and fast recovery under no-load condition. Finally, an assembly consisted of 12 elements in series connection was tested at high-power condition at KEMA PowerTest. Each element had four 40 cm long conductors with Ic 120 A in parallel connection. With 1080 V supply voltage and 90 kA prospective fault peak current, the fault current was limited to 32 kA at the 1st peak with 3.2 kA in the HTS elements. The response time was less than 1 ms. All these testing results indicate that our 2G HTS conductors are promising for practical SFCL applications.