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SuperPower and Partners Resume Fault Current
Limiter Development To Protect Utility Grids
Schenectady, NY, July 25: SuperPower and two partners have agreed to
further develop a unique Superconducting Fault Current Limiter (SFCL) intended
to protect utility grids from damaging power surges that occur from lightning
strikes, fallen tree limbs and other mishaps. SuperPower already has designed,
built and successfully tested a proof-of-concept prototype. The next prototype
will be designed for transmission level voltages, and in the final phase a
complete three-phase prototype “power valve” will be installed at a substation
of American Electric Power for extended operation.
“This device, which has no conventional counterpart currently in use, would act
virtually instantaneously to protect valuable equipment from damaging faults and
ensure the integrity of the grid,” said Philip J. Pellegrino, president of
SuperPower. “We believe that this would counter many of the blackouts and
brownouts we’ve experienced in the Unites States and worldwide in recent years.”
The SFCL will employ second-generation (2G) high-temperature superconducting (HTS)
components developed by SuperPower. Second-generation technology is considered
more cost-efficient and commercially viable than first-generation HTS.
The SFCL program was deferred last year while SuperPower worked to improve the
reliability of elements that were fabricated with melt-cast BSCCO-2212 and to
overcome lagging progress on other developments. Since then SuperPower has been
evaluating the feasibility of using 2G HTS material in place of the BSCCO
elements.
“SuperPower has achieved these objectives and is ready to fully resume the
program” Pellegrino said. “We have conducted tests using 2G material at both
SuperPower and at a high-power test laboratory that indicate our material is
superior to the melt-cast material used in the proof-of-concept prototype with
respect to the key parameters of reliability, response time, recovery under load
and energy absorbed. We also have received additional funding from government
and private sources, in-kind contributions from our partners and have a related
research agreement with a national laboratory.”
SuperPower’s private-sector partners in the project are the same companies that
have collaborated with it on the recently energized HTS cable project in Albany,
New York: Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. of Osaka, Japan, and BOC of Murray
Hill, New Jersey.
SuperPower Inc. (www.superpower-inc.com),
a subsidiary of Intermagnetics General Corporation (NASDAQ:IMGC),
uses core capabilities in materials, cryogenics and magnetics to develop
state-of-the-art second-generation high-temperature superconducting wire and
electric power components for underground transmission and distribution cables,
transformers, motors, generators and fault current limiters.
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