Application of Electrical Industry Standards to Superconducting Fault Current Limiters

Abstract

Superconducting fault current limiters (SFCLs) are a novel type of electrical equipment designed for the protection of high-voltage (10 kV and higher) power grids. At present, around 20 SFCLs are installed worldwide. All these SFCLs have custom design and are specifically tailored to installation site specifics. This may limit widespread application of this technology since each new SFCL installation requires different design and—as a result—multiple approvals from numerous parties (utilities, government, etc.), which is a labor-intensive and time-consuming process. To reduce the efforts required for equipment approval, electrical industry developed an extensive system of standards, and thus, it is necessary to explore the possibility to create an SFCL, which complies with the existing standards. This article examines the existing regulations for the closest to SFCL equipment, i.e., current-limiting reactors, deduces the possibility of applying these regulations to the existing SFCLs, provides requirements that SFCLs are yet to satisfy, and, finally, estimates the basic technical specifications of SFCL that should comply with all the requirements studied.