Application of Super Conducting fault current limiter in Indian grid

With the fast load growth, the grid is pushed to operate near to the limits. The fault current levels at critical substations can overshoot the limits on various equipments like busbars, circuit breakers and transformers. The various conventional remedial measures to reduce fault currents are reported in literature. However, there are time critical situations which can be better tackled by recent devices like fault current limiters (FCLs). Super Conducting FCL (SCFCL) can limit the fault current below the prospective peak values. The paper presents a simple steady state model for SCFCL. An analytical approach to determination of SCFCL impedance is presented. An utility test system is selected to demonstrate the effectiveness of the SCFCL. The location and sizing issues of the SCFCL to minimize cost and obtain desired fault current reduction are also addressed.