Operation experiences with a 30 kV/100 MVA high temperature superconducting cable system

A superconducting cable based on Bi-2223 tape technology has been developed, installed and operated in the public network of Copenhagen Energy in a two-year period between May 2001 and May 2003. This paper gives a brief overview of the system and analyses some of the operation experiences. The aim of this demonstration project is to gain experience with HTS cables under realistic conditions in a live distribution network.

Approximately 50 000 utility customers have their electric power supplied through the HTS cable. The cable system has delivered 226 GW h of energy and reached a maximum operating current of 1157 A. The operation experiences include over-currents of 6 kA due to faults on peripheral lines, commissioning, servicing and failure responses on the cooling system, continuous 24 h, 7 day per week monitoring and performance of the alarm system.

The implications of these experiences for the future applications of HTS cable systems are analysed.