Design and operation of a 40-MW, highly stabilized power supply

Four 10 MW highly stabilized power supply modules have been installed at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, FL, to energize water-cooled resistive high-field research magnets. The power supply modules achieve a long-term current stability of 10 ppm over a 12-h period with a short-term ripple and noise variation of <10 ppm over a time period of one cycle. The power supply modules can operate independently, feeding four separate magnets, or two, three, or four modules can operate in parallel. Each power supply module consists of a 12.5-kV vacuum circuit breaker, two three-winding step-down transformers, a 24-pulse rectifier with interphase reactors, and a passive and an active filter. Two different transformer tap settings allow rated DC supply output voltages of 400 and 500 V. The rated current of a supply module is 17 kA and each supply module has a one-hour overload capability of 20 kA. The isolated output terminals of each power supply module are connected to a reversing switch. An extensive high-current bus system allows the modules to be connected to 16 magnet cells. This paper presents the detailed design of the power supply components. Various test results taken during the commissioning phase with a 10 MW resistive load and results taken with the research magnets are shown. The effects of the modules on the electrical supply system and the operational behavior of the power factor correction/harmonic filters are described. Also included are results of a power supply module feeding a superconducting magnet during quench propagation tests.