Hye-Rim Kim

Installation and Testing of SFCLs

A 22.9 kV/630 A-class superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) was installed on a distribution line in Icheon Substation for real-grid operation. The substation is located in a semi-urban area with moderate loads. The SFCL is of hybrid type. After installation it was subjected to a series of on-site tests. Test procedures were determined by following convention in testing both superconductivity-related and not-related specifications of the SFCL. Tests performed were minimum limiting current test, temperature test, dielectric test, and impedance measurement. After successfully passing the tests, the cooling system of the SFCL was operated for more than 5 months under various load conditions to optimize the operation condition. During that period, temperatures, liquid nitrogen level, and internal pressure remained within ±0.1 K, ±0.5 cm, and ±0.5 bar range, proving stability in cooling superconducting elements. The SFCL was then energized and went into real-load operation successfully.

Long-Term Operation and Fault Tests of a 22.9 kV Hybrid SFCL in the KEPCO Test Grid

This paper reports on the operation test of a 22.9 kV hybrid superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) in the KEPCO test grid. The SFCL works at a rated voltage and current of 22.9 kV and 630 A, respectively. There are two major objectives of the operation test: (1) long-term operation and (2) fault tests for protection coordination study. The operation lasted for more than a year. We experienced several times of cryostat suspension due to blackouts and false alarms due to sensor failures during the operation. We also carried out short circuit tests in the test grid, equipped with circuit breakers and a recloser. An artificial fault generator was used to generate fault currents. The tests showed that the SFCL, together with the recloser, functioned reliably under repeated faults. We also confirmed the reclosing capability of the SFCL. We have presented herein the operation details, cost of operation, short-circuit test results, and our plans for further tests for protection coordination.

Demonstration of a Superconducting Fault Current Limiter in a Real Grid

A 22.9 kV superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) has been in operation in a real grid in Korea. The SFCL is of hybrid type, in which the fault current is detected by a superconductor and bypassed by a high-speed switch to a reactor in a parallel circuit for current limitation. It has a current rating of 630 A, and has been operated in a distribution line in Icheon Substation, which is located in a suburban area with moderate loads. The SFCL has been operated very stably with no degradation in performance. Temperatures and level of the liquid nitrogen cooling the superconductors have been maintained within 0.1 K and 0.3 cm, respectively, under large daily load variation of about 100 A. Performance of the SFCL was tested by measuring minimum limitation current and impedance of the SFCL, and was proved to maintain the initial level of performance. There was a single line-to-ground fault event in the distribution line where the SFCL has been operated, and the SFCL limited the fault current successfully. Data analysis showed that the SFCL limited the current as designed. These results proved reliability and performance of the SFCL.

Dynamic Characteristics of a 22.9 kV Hybrid SFCL for Short-Circuit Test Considering a Simple Coordination of Protection System in Distribution Networks

This paper presents the results of short-circuit tests with a 22.9 kV hybrid superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) on the KEPCO test grid. The hybrid SFCL we used for the test had suffered from lots of field tests including a long term operation and it is still in working order. We have already proved that the SFCL showed high reliability as well as feasibility through a long term operation and short-circuit tests performed before. In this paper, we tried to study a dynamic characteristics of the same SFCL on the distribution power grid through short-circuit tests with a circuit breaker and a reclosing relay. An artificial fault generator (AFG) was used to generate fault currents in the KEPCO power test center. The two objectives of the tests are (1) verifying a precise reaction of the SFCL to reclosing operation and (2) a study for protection coordination with SFCL. The test results showed that the SFCL worked precisely with a fast recovery of the superconducting elements when we applied a one-time reclosing operation with the interval of 0.6 second. We also suggested a proper manipulation of the coordination of the protection system in distribution networks with the SFCL in the paper.

Development and Grid Operation of Superconducting Fault Current Limiters in KEPCO

Development and grid operation of superconducting fault current limiters (SFCLs) have been carried out in Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), as a possible measure to handle the increasing fault current in Korea. A 22.9 kV SFCL has been successfully operated unmanned on a distribution line of Icheon Substation. It has been very stable throughout the operation of more than 1.5 year. Temperatures and level of liquid nitrogen that cools the superconducting element have been maintained constant. Performance of the SFCL maintained the initial level. The SFCL was modified so that it can limit the fault current within the first half cycle. A short-circuit test on the modified SFCL showed it started limiting the current within 2 ms. In parallel, a 154 kV SFCL has been also developed. A superconducting element was designed and fabricated. A short-circuit test was performed on a superconducting unit module, and showed that the module limited the current effectively. The element is planned to be integrated into a single-phase 154 kV SFCL together with the cooling system and other components, and tested soon.

An Effect of HTS Wire Configuration on Quench Recovery Time in a Resistive SFCL

We experimentally investigated the correlation between the high-temperature superconducting (HTS) wires configuration in an HTS element and recovery time after quench in a resistive superconducting fault current limiter. The variables of the configuration are horizontal and vertical gap distances between HTS tapes in an element. Eight samples were made with different gap distances and tested. A SUS-stabilized YBCO tape with 4.4 mm width had been used in the experiment. It was cooled by LN2 in a cryostat under the pressure of 1 bar, saturated state. In the short-circuit test, the temperature of the wires surface was measured. Recovery time of the HTS sample increased with decreasing horizontal and vertical gap distance due to stagnation of bubbles. When the gap distance was larger than a size of a bubble, the effect of gap distance was ignorable. Considering a volume and recovery time, the sample that has narrower gap distance was favorable.

Study on Thermal Response to Instantaneous Heat Generation in LN2 Chamber for HTS-FCL

This paper describes the thermal response of a high-temperature superconducting (HTS) wire model to instantaneous heat generation in a pressurized liquid nitrogen chamber for an HTS fault current limiter. A dc impulse power input to a stainless steel strip is adopted to simulate the quench state of the HTS wire. The test sample is submerged in the liquid nitrogen, which maintains a 77 K temperature with operating pressures of 101, 250, 400, and 600 kPa. Three different levels of dc current are supplied to the test sample during 50 ms for each operating condition. The boiling phenomena are captured with a high-speed camera and the surface temperature of the sample strip is measured to investigate the recovery process. From the captured video, the suppression of bubble generation is clearly observed as increasing operating pressure, especially for the lower heat flux condition. From the measurement of temperature, temperature rise of sample strip during heat generation decreases with increasing operating pressure except for the higher heat flux. For the recovery process, increasing operating pressure delays the recovery of the sample strip, but recovery time is within a few seconds for all cases.

Condition Based Monitoring of Superconducting Fault Current Limiter Using Fuzzy Support Vector Regression

The superconductor-triggered type fault current limiter (STFCL), which was developed by KEPCO and LS Industrial Systems, is under operation for a verification test at KEPCOs power testing center. The STFCL is composed of a superconductor, a fast switch and a current limiting resistor. In this paper, we investigated the empirical modeling of the STFCL using principal component based and fuzzy support vector regression (PCFSVR) for the prediction and detection of faults in the STFCL. Signals for the model are the currents and voltages acquired from the high-temperature superconductor (HTS), driving coil (DC) and current limiting resistor (CLR). After developing an empirical model, we analyzed the accuracy of the model. The results were compared with those of principal component based support vector regression (PCSVR) as presented in MT21. PCFSVR showed better performance in terms of the average level of accuracy. This model can be used for the condition-based monitoring of STFCL systems to predict any fault symptoms of the system through the advantage of the auto-correction function of the model.

Experimental Study on Vaporization of Subcooled Liquid Nitrogen by Instantaneous Heat Generation in LN2 Chamber for HTS-FCL

It is one of important design issues in the high-temperature superconducting fault current limiter (HTS-FCL) to estimate how much liquid nitrogen vaporizes during its quench process. This paper describes the small scale experiment about the vaporization of subcooled liquid nitrogen by instantaneous heat generation corresponding to the quench in HTS-FCL. In the experiment, the heat is given liquid nitrogen by Joule heating of the stainless steel strip for the short time of about 100 ms. The time variations of temperature and pressure in the liquid nitrogen test chamber are measured for different subcooling conditions of liquid nitrogen and various heat flux conditions. In addition, the amount of vaporization of liquid nitrogen is calculated from experimental results according to the subcooling of liquid nitrogen. The experimental results show that the vaporization of liquid nitrogen strongly depends on heat flux and subcooling conditions. The amount of vaporization linearly decreases with the increase in the subcooling of liquid nitrogen. The calculation results about the amount of vaporization suggest that the subcooling of more than 20 K is necessary to suppress bubble generation for the heat flux condition of 46 W/cm2 or more.

Performance test of the cryogenic cooling system for the superconducting fault current limiter

A Superconducting Fault Current Limiter is an electric power device which limits the fault current immediately in a power grid. The SFCL must be cooled to below the critical temperature of high temperature superconductor modules. In general, they are submerged in sub-cooled liquid nitrogen for their stable thermal characteristics. To cool and maintain the target temperature and pressure of the sub-cooled liquid nitrogen, the cryogenic cooling system should be designed well with a cryocooler and coolant circulation devices. The pressure of the cryostat for the SFCL should be pressurized to suppress the generation of nitrogen bubbles in quench mode of the SFCL. In this study, we tested the performance of the cooling system for the prototype 154 kV SFCL, which consist of a Stirling cryocooler, a subcooling cryostat, a pressure builder and a main cryostat for the SFCL module, to verify the design of the cooling system and the electric performance of the SFCL. The normal operation condition of the main cryostat is 71 K and 500 kPa. This paper presents tests results of the overall cooling system.