Protection study of the Babcock and Wilcox SMES coil

Babcock and Wilcox (B&W) is working with Anchorage Municipal Light and Power (ML&P) to design, manufacture and install a 30 MW, 1800 MJ SMES system in Anchorage, Alaska. This will be the first mid-sized SMES system that will demonstrate full four-quadrant utility application. One design option considered for the SMES magnet is an enthalpy margin stabilized coil. A protection code has been established to study the quench performance of the coil. This paper presents the results of this study and compares different protection methods. The paper also discusses the impact of some key design parameters on coil quench performance.<>