Strengthening the Grid: Effect of High-Temperature Superconducting Power Technologies on Reliability, Power Transfer Capacity, and Energy Use

Abstract : This report evaluates the potential of high-temperature superconducting (HTS) power technologies to address existing problems with the U.S. electric power transmission grid, especially problems with transmission constraints. These constraints that have resulted from the slow growth of transmission systems relative to the growth in demand for power have played a major role in higher electricity prices and reduced reliability in a number of areas across the United States in recent years. Electric power components using superconducting materials have the potential to address these transmission constraints because they have much higher energy density than conventional power equipment, which for transmission means added power-carrying capacity. Superconducting power equipment requires cooling to sustain operating temperatures hundreds of degrees below ambient temperature. Magnets based on low-temperature superconducting (LTS) materials that require cooling with liquid or gaseous helium have become commercial products for accelerator and magnetic resonance imaging applications. However, the cost of cooling these LTS materials is a substantial barrier to their use in power system components. HTS power equipment, on the other hand, can be cooled with liquid nitrogen which is considerably cheaper than liquid or gaseous helium, thereby reducing or eliminating this cost barrier.

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