Superconducting Fault Current Limiter optimized design

The SuperConducting Fault Current Limiter (SCFCL) appears as one of the most promising SC applications for the electrical grids. Despite its advantages and many successful field experiences the market of SCFCL has difficulties to take off even if the first orders for permanent operation in grids are taken. The analytical design of resistive SCFCL will be discussed with the objective to reduce the quantity of SC conductor (length and section) to be more cost-effective. For that the SC conductor must have a high resistivity in normal state. It can be achieved by using high resistivity alloy for shunt, such as Hastelloy®. One of the most severe constraint is that the SCFCL should operate safely for any faults, especially those with low prospective short-circuit currents. This constraint requires to properly design the thickness of the SC tape in order to limit the hot spot temperature. An operation at 65 K appears as very interesting since it decreases the SC cost at least by a factor 2 with a simple LN2 cryogenics. Taking into account the cost reduction in a near future, the SC conductor cost could be rather low, half a dollar per kV A.