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2, JUNE 2005
A Generic Real-Time Computer Simulation Model
for Superconducting Fault Current Limiters and Its
Application in System Protection Studies
J. Langston, M. Steurer, S. Woodruff, T. Baldwin, and J. Tang
Abstract—A model for the SCFCL suitable for use in real time
computer simulation is presented. The model accounts for the
highly nonlinear quench behavior of BSCCO and includes the
thermal aspects of the transient phenomena when the SCFCL
is activated. Implemented in the RTDS real-time simulation tool
the model has been validated against published BSCCO charac-
teristics. As an example for an application in protection system
studies, the effect of an SCFCL on a utility type impedance relay
has been investigated using a real time hardware-in-the-loop
(RT-HIL) experiment. The test setup is described and initial
results are presented. They illustrate the effect of how the relay
misinterprets the dynamically changing SCFCL impedance as an
apparently more distant fault location. It is expected that the new
real-time SCFCL model will provide a valuable tool not only for
further protection system studies but for a wide range of RT-HIL
experiments of power systems.
Index Terms—Power system protection, real time simulation, su-
perconducting fault current limiters (SCFCL).
I. INTRODUCTION
F OR A NUMBER of years, fault current limiters (FCLs)
have been discussed and considered for power systems
as means to lower the required breaking capacity for circuit
breakers. As pointed out in [1], problems to which FCLs
may provide technically and economically effective solutions
include power system expansions resulting in fault currents
in excess of the ratings of existing equipment. Interconnec-
tion of systems and introduction of distributed (or dispersed)
generation are other examples for potential FCL applications
in terrestrial utility systems [2]. Furthermore, FCLs may be
introduced into isolated sub-grids such as the future all-electric
NAVY ship’s integrated power distribution system. Despite the
large number of publications available on fault current limiters,
the issues associated with the introduction of these novel
devices into power systems, have only been addressed theoreti-
cally to a limited extent [1]–[5]. In particular, no investigations
have been reported that include off the shelf utility type protec-
tion equipment. In order to properly test protection apparatus in
a system environment real-time hardware-in-the-loop (RT-HIL)
Manuscript received October 5, 2004. This work was sponsored by the U.S.
Office of Naval Research under Grant N0014-02-1-0623.
The authors are with the Center for Advanced Power Systems, Florida State
University, Tallahassee, FL, 32310, USA (e-mail: langston@caps.fsu.edu;
steurer@caps.fsu.edu; woodruff@caps.fsu.edu; baldwin@caps.fsu.edu; tang@
eng.fsu.edu).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TASC.2005.849459
1051-8223/$20.00 © 2005 IEEE
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON APPLIED SUPERCONDUCTIVITY, VOL. 15, NO.
simulation is the only economically viable tool. Therefore, this
paper presents for the first time the application of RT-HIL for
studying the impact of FCLs on power systems. In particular, a
generic model of a resistive type superconducting fault current
limiter (SCFCL) and its implementation on the commercial real
time computer simulation platform RTDS is given. The model
has been used successfully to test the impact of a SCFCL on a
Schweitzer SEL-311B distance protection relay.
II. MODELING OF SUPERCONDUCTING FAULT CURRENT
LIMITER
In a superconducting fault current limiter the quench behavior
of the superconductor is utilized to insert a high resistance into
the power system in case of high fault currents. The resistance
of the superconductor is a function of current density, temper-
ature, and magnetic field. A shunt resistor is typically required
in parallel to the superconductor to divert the major portion of
the fault current out of the latter after the quench in order to
prevent overheating. Depending upon the design of the SCFCL
the shunt may be either spatially separated or mechanically and
thermally closely coupled to the superconductor. Therefore, the
SCFCL is modeled as a variable resistor, representing the su-
perconducting element, in parallel with a fixed resistance. As
long as the aforementioned parameters are below critical levels,
the superconductor will remain in a superconducting state. As
these parameters start to reach excessive levels, however, the
superconductor begins to quench, raising its resistance. Thus,
it is this parallel resistance that is essentially inserted into the
system when the superconductor quenches. The parameters for
the model employed here are given in Table I.
The E-J characteristic of the superconductor is modeled ac-
cording to [6]. For a given current density, , and temperature,
, the electric field developed by the superconductor, , is cal-
culated from the equations given in [6] which account for the
self induced magnetic field through the values of the parameters
chosen. For this model, the critical current density and normal
conducting state resistivity are approximated as linear functions
of the temperature
(1)
(2)
LANGSTON et al.: GENERIC REAL-TIME COMPUTER SIMULATION MODEL FOR SCFCL
TABLE I
SUPERCONDUCTOR MODEL PARAMETERS
Fig. 1. Sample E-J characteristics for the superconductor model at
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nitrogen bath). The superconductor is generically modeled as
a wire with rectangular cross section, with heat flow occurring
only perpendicular to current flow. The temperature of the su-
perconductor, , can be calculated using
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
where is the heat dissipated in the superconducting element,
is the thermal resistance from the superconducting element
to the cooling reservoir, and is the heat capacity of the su-
perconductor (with the assumption that the initial temperature
is ambient temperature). An alternative data entry format al-
lows the cross sectional area for the superconductor, along with
thermal parameters and to be specified directly. A sim-
ilar thermal model is also used for the shunt resistor.
Although the superconducting element could be modeled
more simply by a switch in parallel with the shunt resistor
(which would certainly be more easily implemented for a real
time simulation), the intended use of the model for testing the
effects of current limiters on relays warrants the use of the more
detailed model presented. One aspect of the model which is
particularly important to relay behavior is the quench time for
the superconductor, which is heavily dependent on the design
of the SCFCL and the characteristics of the fault. For relays
which must react quickly, this quench time is paramount in de-
termining the impedance measured by the device and, thus, the
reaction of the relay. A second aspect of the model of particular
importance to protection studies is the slight change in the total
resistance of the device over the duration of the fault as the
shunt material begins to heat up significantly. Although this
process is not likely to occur fast enough to affect an adjacent
relay, this may well have an effect on protection devices further
away from the SCFCL. Such aspects of the model can have a
tremendous impact on the behavior of the protection system,
temperatures of 77 K, 90 K, and 94.5 K (values of (77 K) = 9,  = 3,
J = 2:5e7 A=m , and E = 0:07 V=m,). Also shown is an E-J characteristic
of the superconductor as it heats up.
The effective resistance of the superconductor for the next
time step in the real-time simulation can then be calculated as
(3)
where is the current through the superconducting branch
of the fault current limiter and is the time step size for the
simulation. E-J curves simulated for both constant and variable
temperatures are shown in Fig. 1, which agree with E-J curves
produced by BSCCO 2212 samples reported in [6] (parameters
chosen to match those exhibited by samples reported in [6]).
The thermal model for the superconductor includes the heat
capacity of the material, as well as a first order approximation
of the heat transfer to the surrounding coolant (i.e. the liquid
and, thus, require detailed modeling of the current limiters
employed.
III. RELAY TEST SETUP
The tests of the relay with the simulated fault current lim-
iter were performed at the Center for Advanced Power Systems
(CAPS) at Florida State University. The CAPS RT-HIL simu-
lation facility makes use of an RTDS digital simulator (which
yields transient solutions for power systems using an EMTP
type algorithm), currently capable of simulating systems of up
to 200 electrical nodes with time steps as small as 10 . Initial
tests of the effect of the SCFCL model were carried out using
the test setup shown in Fig. 2, using a 60 time step. The
simulated three phase system consists of an ideal three-phase
source (with source impedance and an R-L load) connected
through two transmission lines to a generator. Transmission line
T2 is protected by a Schweitzer SEL-311B impedance relay
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Fig. 2. RT-HIL setup with the SCFCL placed between T2 and the PTs (case
B).
TABLE II
SYSTEM PARAMETERS
connected externally to the simulated system. It is set to protect
up to 80% of the line using a common mho characteristic. The
phase currents and voltages from the respective current trans-
formers (CTs) and potential transformers (PTs) are sent to the
relay in real time, along with a 120 V signal indicating breaker
states. The relay provides trip and reclose signals to the simu-
lated breakers, allowing the relay to fully interact with the sim-
ulation. Single-line-to-ground faults are applied at various loca-
tions along transmission line T2, and the behavior of the relay
is studied
A.) without the SCFCL,
B.) with the SCFCL placed between T2 and the PTs, and
C.) with the SCFCL placed between B2 and the PTs.
The fault current limiter was designed to reduce the symmet-
rical fault current at the SCFCL end of transmission line T2
(next to B2) by 50%. The pertinent data for the system is pro-
vided in Table II. The required value for the shunt resistance in
the SCFCL is obtained from
(8)
where is the combined positive sequence resistance of
the source and transmission line T1, and is the combined
positive sequence reactance of the source and transmission
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON APPLIED SUPERCONDUCTIVITY, VOL. 15, NO. 2, JUNE 2005
Fig. 3. Fault currents and trip signal from relay for fault at 50% length of T2
with the SCFCL placed between the PTs and T2.
line. Once the superconductor quenches, the shunt resistance
is inserted in series with the source impedance of and
the impedance of transmission line T1, providing the desired
current limitation. Values for the model’s dimensions were
chosen using trial and error, in order to obtain suitable quench
characteristics for the considered faults on the system. Unfor-
tunately, since faults on the protected line only yielded fault
currents three to four times the nominal current, the parameters
had to be chosen to make the SCFCL particularly sensitive,
thus yielding somewhat unrealistic dimensions.
IV. RESULTS
A. Without the SCFCL
Initial tests without the SCFCL model confirmed that the
relay correctly tripped for faults within the protection zone and
rejected trips for faults outside of the protection zone. The sim-
ulation yielded typical fault currents of 3 to 3.5 times the normal
load current for faults near bus B2.
B. SCFCL Placed Between the PTs and Transmission Line T2
The SCFCL reduced the fault current levels near bus B2 to 2
to 2.25 times the normal load current. With the SCFCL model
inserted between T2 and the PTs the relay did not correctly iden-
tify the fault distance of faults within the protection zone. More-
over, faults close to bus B3 did not cause a trip at all. The reason
is the additional impedance introduced by the SCFCL causing
the relay to calculate larger apparent line impedances of T2. As
an example, current waveforms during a fault applied at 50% of
the line length are shown in Fig. 3. The quench of the supercon-
ducting element in the first quarter cycle after fault inception is
clearly visible.
C. SCFCL Placed Between Bus B2 and the PTs
With the SCFCL model placed between bus B2 and the PTs,
the fault current was still reduced as in case B, but the relay ap-
propriately tripped for faults within the protection zone because
it correctly measured the line impedance. An example fault is
shown in Fig. 4.
LANGSTON et al.: GENERIC REAL-TIME COMPUTER SIMULATION MODEL FOR SCFCL
Fig. 4. Fault currents and trip signal from relay for fault at 50% length of T2
with the SCFCL placed between bus B2 and the PTs.
V. CONCLUSIONS
Testing of a distance protection relay using the new real-time
his assistance with the test setup and the RTDS.
SCFCL model confirmed that depending on the location of the
PTs in the system, faults within the protection zone might not
be picked up correctly. From these initial successful tests using
the RT-HIL platform it is concluded that
• The presented SCFCL model will be a viable basis for
more extensive and comprehensive tests of protection
equipment and their interactions with both, utility and
naval electric power systems.
• Since the new SCFCL model accurately reproduces
the HTS quench characteristic in real-time this base
model can be easily adapted to represent other super-
conducting apparatus, such as transformers and motors
for real-time simulation studies.
Although, the initial tests with the relay have demonstrated the
usefulness of the new model several areas of further improve-
ment and future work have been identified
• The SCFCL model can be improved by including the
effects of external magnetic fields produced by the
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other two phases and developing more sophisticated
thermal models. Furthermore, the model should be
validated through comparisons with measurements
from quench behaviors of actual SCFCL devices.
• Investigate methods to modify relay settings and fault
detection algorithms to prevent false trips such as the
ones observed during this work. While methods for
modifying the mho characteristic are suggested in [3]
and design constraints for the SCFCL are suggested
in [1], other approaches may also be possible. For ex-
ample, in the case of a resistive type SCFCL it is con-
ceivable to take advantage of the fact that transmission
line impedances are dominantly inductive and there-
fore should be easily distinguishable from the addi-
tional SCFCL impedance by more sophisticated relay
algorithms. Alternatively, the specifics of the transient
quench behavior may also be taken into account.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank M. Sloderbeck of CAPS for
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