Using Superconducting Fault Current Limiters to enhance the reliability of power transmission systems

While one of the strongest points in a power system is the substation, it still contains what can be described as weak points or points of failure that could lead to major outages. Present paper examines the impact of Superconducting Fault Current Limiter (SFCL) on the transmission substation reliability. To this end, potential application of a SFCL in a practical 138 kV transmission grid is studied from the reliability point of view and numerical results are presented. The concept of failure modes and effects analysis is used in deriving the study results presented in the paper. Results of the investigation show that using SFCLs makes a significant improvement in the load point reliability in addition to improving the power system dynamics.