ALBANY HTS CABLE PROJECT LONG TERM IN-GRID OPERATION STATUS UPDATE

Abstract

High-temperature superconducting (HTS) cable systems are expected to be a solution for improvement of the power grid and three demonstration projects in the real grid are under way in the United States. One of them is the Albany, NY Cable Project, involving the installation and operation of a 350 meter HTS cable system with a capacity of 34.5kV, 800A, connecting between two substations in National Grid's electric utility system. A 320 meter and a 30 meter cable are installed in underground conduit and connected together in a vault. The cables were fabricated with 70km of DI-BSCCO wire in a 3 core-in-one cryostat structure. The cable installation of a 320 meter and a 30 meter section was completed successfully using the same pulling method as a conventional underground cable. After the cable installation, the joint and two terminations were assembled at the Albany site. After the initial cooling of the system, the commissioning tests such as the critical current, heat loss measurement and DC withstand voltage test were conducted successfully. The in-grid operation began on July 20th, 2006 and operated successfully in unattended condition through May 1st, 2007. In the 2nd phase of the Albany project, the 30 meter section is to be replaced by a YBCO cable. The YBCO cable had been developed and a new 30 meter cable was manufactured by using SuperPower's YBCO coated conductors. This paper describes the latest status of the Albany cable project.