Towards a Self-Healing Electric Grid With Superconducting Fault Current Controllers

Uncertainty and complexity due to expanded adoption of renewable energy resources, distributed energy resources as well as expanded electric transportation and dynamic demand response technologies in the power industry present significant challenges in grid operations. It is thus required to develop smart protection and control actions for ensuring highly reliable and healthy electric power infrastructure by increasing resiliency against component failures or natural disasters, i.e. self-healing ability. This paper, in particular focuses on the self-healing in the context of grid protection using smart superconducting fault current controller (Smart FCC). A systematic framework and technological requirements are presented for realizing the envisioned self-healing protection capability using Smart FCC while minimizing the electric loss near zero through superconducting coil. Illustrative examples, modeling and simulation studies demonstrate the validity and efficacy of the proposed framework and envisioned technology.