The Construction Progress of a High-Tc Superconducting Power Substation in China

It is expected that superconducting technologies will play an important role in the future smart grid, because the application of superconductor technologies in the power grid can decrease power losses, relieve overload, avoid higher levels of transmission voltage, increase power transmission capacity, and improve power quality and grid stability. In recent years, high temperature (high-Tc) superconducting power technologies have achieved remarkable progress. High temperature superconducting (HTS) power equipment, such as HTS power cables, HTS transformers, high-Tc superconducting fault current limiters (SFCL), and high-Tc superconducting magnetic energy storage devices (SMES) have been demonstrated in the power grids of many countries. With the development of HTS power equipment, the construction of a HTS power substation is ready. In China, a 10.5 kV HTS power substation is under construction in Baiyin city, Gansu province. The substation integrates a HTS power cable, a HTS transformer, a HTS fault current limiter, and a high-Tc SMES. All these HTS power devices, which were previously developed by the Institute of Electrical Engineering (IEE), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), have been demonstrated to operate for a long time in the commercial power grid. In this paper, the design and constructing progress of the HTS substation are introduced in detail.