Long length manufacturing of high performance BSCCO-2223 tape for the Detroit Edison Power Cable Project

Abstract

American Superconductor has manufactured the BSCCO-2223 tapes for the Detroit Edison Power Cable Project. Pirelli Cables and Systems, along with Detroit Edison, Lotepro, EPRI, and Los Alamos National Lab, are developing, manufacturing, and installing the world's first HTS cable system in an electric utility network. Partially funded by the DOE-SPI program, the project goal is to fabricate, install, and test a 3-phase, 120-meter long, 100 MVA HTS cable system rated at 2400 A and 24 kV in Detroit Edison's Frisbie Station. Significant advances in HTS tape technology have been made in the past year, with average engineering critical current performance above 115 A at 77 K. We discuss the distribution of critical current as well as mechanical and environmental tests of more than 25 km of BSCCO tape manufactured for the Detroit Edison project. The environmental tests have been designed to simulate the behavior of HTS tapes under the actual operating conditions for an underground power cable.