Investigation of superconducting fault current limiter application in a power-dense marine electrical network

Power-dense, low-voltage marine electrical systems have the potential for extremely high fault currents. Limitation of fault currents is very attractive in a marine vessel, particularly in terms of switchgear cost, size, and weight, and reducing damage at the point of fault. This study shows that superconducting fault current limiters (SFCLs), even with relatively small impedances, are highly effective at reducing prospective fault currents. For the marine system investigated, various possible SFCL deployment strategies were found to be effective, particularly at the bus-tie location which can limit the fault current to approximately half the unrestricted value with an impedance of 0.1Ω. However, the chosen fault current limitation scheme will depend significantly on the vessel's electrical topology, the fault current contribution of each of the generators, and the properties of the SFCL device.