SURGE PROTECTION USING SUPERCONDUCTORS

By J DAVID MANOHAR (08A31A0232)

NECESSITY OF SUPERCONDUSTOR
Damage from short circuit is constant threat in power systems All the power systems components must be designed

to withstand over short circuit stresses

If the higher fault currents are anticipated then higher

equipment required . Hence maintenance cost increases

PROPERTIES OF FAULT CURRENT LIMITER

Having zero impedance under normal operation It provide larger impedance whenever any fault occur It provides immediate recovery after clearing the fault It has a capacity to addressing two faults within a period of 15 sec

 In past we are limiting fault current by artificially raising the impedance Now such methods are inconsistence for todays demand of high power quality These drawbacks can be overcome by using fault current limiter

SUPERCONDUCTORS
Because of their sharp transition from zero resistance at normal operations to higher

resistance in the fault condition

Super conductors having critical temperature can

be maintained by liquid nitrogen

TYPES OF SCFCL
RESISTIVE SCFCL: In RESISTIVE SCFCL the super conductor is directly connected to line to be protected It was immersed in a coolant and it chilled by refrigerator

Current leads are design to transfer heat from outside to coolant

 SHIELDED CORE SCFCL: The shielded core fault current limiter basically a

shorted transformer
Here the superconductor is connected to the line not

directly but magnetically

The primary coil is connected in series to the line to

be protected and secondary side is superconducting and shorted

FAULT CURRENT LIMITER

Recently the distributed generators are introduced to the

load system side

The fault current will increase with installation of DGs Usually a limiting reactor is set in series with DGs If you use SCFCL in place of reactor it reduces fault

current and transmit maximum power under steady state condition

ADVANTAGES OF SCFCL OVER REACTOR

It can be decided by conducting two tests

I.

Current limiting test: Consider generator output and load are 3KW and 1.5 KW respectively If the peak of the fault current is 120 amps without SCFCL , it is suppressed to 46.3 amps Without SCFCL the power to the load during the fault dropped almost zero KW on other hand it was kept to some level with SCFCL

 STEADY STATE STABILITY TEST:

Consider a reactor whose impedance is same as SCFCL in current limiting mode

The steady state stability test carry out through SCFCL or reactor The SCFCL reduce fault current without decreasing maximum power and stability margin

RESULTS
The SCFCL turns in to current limiting mode when fault current reached to triggering current
The DG is successfully from over current at the fault

condition Power supply to the load continuous to certain extent during the fault SCFCL reduce fault current without decreasing maximum power and stability margin

SCFCL BENEFITS
Safety, reliability and power quality Cost for circuit breaker and fuses can be reduced Reduce voltage drops Enhance grid stability

CONCLUSION
The purpose of this paper was the study of surge

current protection using superconductors the SCFCL offers efficient advantages to power system and opens of major applications for superconducting material

THANK YOU