AMSC ships superconductor wire for project hydra prototype power ...

Tag : cable

Electric utilities around the world are facing challenges to movemore electricity through their urban grids to meet the increasingpower demands of the future. At the same time, they must protectcustomers from ever larger power surges, known as fault currents.The Secure Super Grids (SSG) solution utilizes HTS power cables andancillary controls to deliver up to 10 times more power thanconventional copper cables while at the same time suppressing powersurges that can disrupt service. The technology creates multiplepaths for electricity flow in power grids to ensure systemredundancy when individual circuits are disrupted due to severeweather, traffic accidents or willful destruction.
SSG technology was developed by AMSC based on a decade of HTS powercable demonstrations under U.S. Department of Energy projects,including live grid deployments in Ohio and New York, as well asAMSC's development of stand-alone HTS fault current limiters forthe electric utility industry. SSG is enabled by the uniqueproperties of AMSC's proprietary 344 superconductors, which areperfect conductors of electricity but then instantly switch toresistive mode when encountering a surge in current. When switchedto resistive mode, the SSG system automatically and instantlysuppresses power surges.
"Working with Homeland Security, Con Edison and Ultera, we havemade significant progress since the launch of Project HYDRA inmid-2007," said Daniel McGahn, senior vice president and generalmanager of AMSC Superconductors. "We successfully completed testsof an initial trial SSG cable and have now shipped all of the wirenecessary for the first system prototype. We look forward tosuccessfully testing this prototype in 2009 and deploying the fullsolution in Manhattan in 2010. This solution holds great promisefor increasing the reliability and security of power grids incities around the world."
AMSC delivered this initial shipment of 344 superconductors toUltera's operations in Germany for the production of the prototypeSSG cable. Testing of the prototype will be performed inconjunction with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and is expected tobe complete in 2009. The full-scale HTS power cable system willconnect two of Con Edison's Manhattan substations and is scheduledto be deployed in 2010.
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