Why is it important?
It’s getting progressively more difficult to ensure reliable electrical energy supply in densely populated cities and in industrial areas. Common problems are high congestion level of both underground and overhead cable routes, high energy losses, electromagnetic pollution, etc. HTS technology provides a unique chance to solve many of these issues as it enables power cables with ´5-10 power capacity that are more efficient, don’t emit heat and EMI. First commercial cables at distribution voltage level were recently built in USA, Korea, China, and Japan.
Another big problem are fault currents which are unwanted in-rush type of electrical currents, occuring in electrical grid during short-circuit or other malfunction events. If grid gets larger than some threshold, conventional circuit breakers cannot cope with the fault current challenge anymore.
As a result reliability is challenged and blackouts are provoked. HTS-based fault current limiters (SFCL) are providing unique tool that simultaneously solves this issue and enables dense and yet reliable grid. There are more niche applications for SFCLs such as protection for railways, industrial equipment, electronics, etc.
What's holding us back?
Thanks to numerous pilot projects and first commercial applications, both power cables and fault current limiters have reached significant technical maturity. There’s high probability scenario that these technologies will continue to be improved rapidly. At this stage, which is critical for further commercialization, potential customers (grid companies) should be actively educated on the benefits of superconductors and how they address their problems.