Fault current limiters using superconductors

Fault current limiters on power systems are to reduce damage by heating and electromechanical forces, to alleviate duty on switchgear used to clear the fault, and to mitigate disturbance to unfaulted parts of the system. A basic scheme involves a super-resistor which is a superconductor being driven to high resistance when fault current flows either when current is high during a cycle of a.c. or, if the temperature of the superconductive material rises, for the full cycle. Current may be commuted from superconductor to an impedance in parallel, thus reducing the energy dispersed at low temperature and saving refrigeration. In a super-shorted transformer the ambient temperature primary carries the power system current; the superconductive secondary goes to a resistive condition when excessive currents flow in the primary. A super-transformer has the advantage of not needing current leads from high temperature to low temperature; it behaves as a parallel super-resistor and inductor. The super-transductor with a superconductive d.c. bias winding is large and has small effect on the rate of fall of current at current zero; it does little to alleviate duty on switchgear but does reduce heating and electromechanical forces. It is fully active after a fault has been cleared. Other schemes depend on rapid recooling of the superconductor to achieve this. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.