Superconducting fault current limiter for smart grid application

The conventional power system is adopting the concept of the smart grid by integrating intelligent control system, advanced communication network and green energy resources. Penetration of renewables is increasing the fault current level of the system. Conventional protection elements are unable to suppress the fault current rapidly. The superconducting fault current limiters (SFCL) are perceived to be very useful in this regard. SFCL is having a very fast response and its high nonlinear characteristics help to limit high fault current. In this work, some unique case studies have been carried out with resistive-SFCL. The proposed model of resistive-SFCL can be easily employed to limit high fault currents in multifarious smart grid systems. The power system model considered here is a practical Indian grid system with generation, transmission, and distribution facility. To reflect the performance of resistive-SFCL in micro-grid environment one wind farm of 12 MVA capacities is considered as a distributed generation resource. To analyze the performance in detail of resistive-SFCL, different faults have been considered at different locations in presence of wind farm. Strategic locations of resistive-SFCL have been considered according to network protection priority. The simulation results obtained from different case studies are reliable and satisfactory.