Test program has qualified the 320 kV direct current superconducting cable for currents up to 10 kA with a 3.2 GW power transmission capability.
June 12, 2019
A group of 10 academic and industry partners of the EU-funded Best Paths project have developed a new modular HVDC superconducting cable system for bulk power transmission over long distances with minimal resistive losses. Nexans, which led the project, reported that it tested and qualified the high-voltage dc superconducting cable that the project created for 320kVdc for currents up to 10kA with a 3.2GW power transmission capability.
Nexans has helped to bring these high-power superconducting cables a step closer to reality with the successful completion of qualification tests on the Best Paths superconducting cable created for high-voltage dc links.
Superconducting cables could enable Europe’s power grids to meet their challenging CO2 reduction targets by helping to transfer many gigawatts (GW) of electricity over distances of several hundreds of kilometers from remote solar or wind farms to population centers without the losses associated with traditional resistive cables.
There are already a number of superconducting cables operating in alternating current (AC) networks. However, the EU-funded Best Paths project has focused on the investigation of HVDC solutions for bulk power transmission with a modular design that is easily adaptable so that the rated current and voltage can be matched to any power grid specification. Nexans was the project leader, with nine other industrial and academic partners including CERN, Columbus Superconductors, ESPCI Paris, IASS Potsdam, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Ricerca sul Sistema Energetico (RSE), Réseau de Transport d’Électricité (RTE), Technische Universität Dresden and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM).
The Best Paths project culminated with the first-ever successful qualification on a test platform of a full-scale 320 kilovolt (kV) HVDC superconducting loop. This loop comprises two terminations and a 30 meter length of cable carrying a current of 10 kiloamps (kA) for a rated power transmission capacity of 3.2 GW. The program included a complete sequence of voltage testing at 1.85 times the rated voltage (up to 592 kV) and impulse tests.
