Overview and Assessment of Superconducting Technologies for Power Grid Applications

It is expected that superconducting technologies will play an important role in the future smart grid because their application brings a host of benefits, most notably a decrease power loss that allows for overload relief, the lowering of voltage levels, power quality enhancement and subsequent grid stability. The phenomenon of superconductivity brings these potential qualities to the grid in the form of a number of technologies analogous to the commonly accepted, conventional types in the form of cabling, fault current limiters, energy storage (ES), generators and transformers. This paper aims to provide an overview of these technologies and their current and potential applications.