900 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON APPLIED SUPERCONDUCTIVITY, VOL. 12, NO.
1, MARCH 2002
Application Studies of Superconducting Fault Current
Limiters in Electric Power Systems
Lin Ye, LiangZhen Lin, and Klaus-Peter Juengst
Abstract—In power systems, superconducting fault current lim-
iters (SFCLs) can limit the prospective short-circuit currents to
lower levels, so that the underrated switchgears can be operated
safely. This paper presents a detailed theoretical analysis of im-
proving power system stability by using of SFCLs. Electromag-
netic Transient Program (EMTP) simulation results based on a
model system also show that SFCLs are effective for enhancing the
transient stability of electric power systems by restraining the gen-
erator rotors from accelerating after faults and improving power
quality. This paper outlines the basic application guidelines for
using superconducting fault current limiters in different voltage-
level power systems. In order to insure the safe and proper usage
of SFCLs, some future considerations on the interaction between
SFCLs and power systems are presented as well.
Index Terms—Power quality, SFCL, short circuit, supercon-
ducting fault current limiter, transient stability.
I. INTRODUCTION
A S ELECTRIC power systems grow and become more
interconnected, at some points, the available fault currents
levels may exceed the maximum short-circuit ratings of the
switchgear. Traditionally, to alleviate the cost of switchgear and
bus replacements, the most common ways to limit high-level
fault currents are: uprating of switchgear and other equipment,
splitting the power grid and introducing higher voltage con-
nections (AC or DC), using current-limiting fuses or series
reactors or high-impedance transformers, and using complex
strategies like sequential network tripping. Nevertheless, these
alternatives may create other problems such as loss of power
system safety and reliability, high cost and increasing power
losses [1].
In the past few years, many kinds of fault current limiting
devices have been moved forward in accordance with the devel-
opment of power electronics, magnet technology and supercon-
ducting materials [2]–[5].
Due to superconducting fault current limiters’ low-loss nature
in superconducting state during normal operation, SFCLs could
offer a solution to controlling fault current levels in utility dis-
tribution and transmission networks [6]. In the event of a fault,
SFCLs will produce impedances due to losing superconduc-
tivity, and insert them into the circuits. Application of SFCLs
Manuscript received September 24, 2001. This work was supported by
the National Center for R & D on Superconductivity of China (Contract
863-CD040000).
L. Ye and K.-P. Juengst are with Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (FZK), Insti-
tute for Technical Physics (ITP), 3640, D-76021 Karlsruhe, Germany (e-mail:
lin.ye@itp.fzk.de).
L. Z. Lin is with the Institute of Electrical Engineering (IEE), Chinese
Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing 100080, P. R. China.
Publisher Item Identifier S 1051-8223(02)03850-2.
1051-8223/02$17.00 © 2002 IEEE
in electric power systems is expected not only to suppress the
amplitudes of the short circuits but also to enhance the power
system stability.
In this paper, we mainly give a theoretical analysis of
improving power system transient stability by using an SFCL
which is capable of consuming the excessive accelerating
generator power, increasing the stability-limit of the system
and then enlarging the stability-region after the short circuit.
In addition, some application guidelines for using SFCLs in
power grids are also presented.
II. A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF THE SHORT CIRCUIT CURRENT
A brief review of short circuits is given prior to discussing
the application of superconducting fault current limiters. The
general formula of short circuit current [7] is described by (1)
(1)
where is the peak value of the symmetrical current deter-
mined by the magnitude of the system voltage and the equiv-
alent short-circuit impedance. is the peak value of the cur-
rent during normal operation. is the initial voltage angle.
is the impedance angle prior to the short circuit. is given by
, where is the equivalent short circuit ratio.
From (1), the short circuit current is composed of the symmet-
rical short circuit and the dc offset, in which the dc component
is exponentially decaying. The combination of these two cre-
ates an asymmetrical short circuit current which depends on the
system ratio and the voltage angle when a fault occurs. It
is noted that the maximum asymmetrical current appears within
the first half cycle if the fault occurs at the zero voltage crossing
point. So the onset of SFCLs must be available to limit the max-
imum fault currents within milliseconds.
III. ANALYSIS OF IMPROVING THE POWER SYSTEM TRANSIENT
STABILITY USING SFCL
Stable operation of the power system network is dependent
on the balance of mechanical and electromagnetic forces
keeping the generators in synchronism. When a power system
is in normal conditions, there is an equilibrium between the
consumed and produced power in this power system. When a
large disturbance such as a short circuit or line tripping appears,
this situation of synchronous equilibrium may momentarily
damp oscillations or definitively be lost, depending on the case.
So the power system transient stability problem is then defined
as that of assessing whether or not the power angle of the
YE et al.: APPLICATION STUDIES OF SFCLs IN ELECTRIC POWER SYSTEMS 901

generator will be kept or reach a new acceptable steady-state

operating point following the fault [8]. If SFCLs are used in
the power system during a fault, theory and simulation results
show that the transient stability of system can be enhanced.
Fig. 1. Diagram of a model power system.
A. Electromagnetic Power Characteristic
Power systems are made up of many power plants, transmis-
sion lines and various kinds of loads. Given a system of gen-
erators, so the electromagnetic power of the generator can be
formulated as (3)

(3) Fig. 2. Equivalent circuit of a model power system with SFCL.

Without SFCL, the generator’s power characteristic is de-

where:
duced from (4) and described by (5).
the complex generator voltage source (emf).
the complex generator voltage source (emf).
the complex current of the generator . (5)
the conjugate complex function.
the complex network transfer admittance matrix. where:
The electromagnetic power of the generator can be also ex- system voltage
pressed as a function of the power angle generator voltage (emf)
total reactances of the system during normal operation

(4)

transfer reactance between generator and system.

where: It can be expressed by (6)
angle between and .
modulus of the complex input impedance. (6)
modulus of complex transfer impedance.
,
Based on the positive sequence equivalent criterion, while a
. short circuit occurs, the use of symmetrical components allows
the complex input conductance. any type of faults to be represented in the positive sequence
the complex transfer conductance. network by a fault shunt reactance connected between the
the complex input susceptance. point of the fault and the neutral [7]. The value of the shunt
the complex transfer susceptance. reactance depends on the type of faults.
From (4), the power angle characteristic of a generator can be Supposed the network has SFCL installed (Fig. 2), let the final
expressed by the electric potentials and the relative angles of resistance of the SFCL be given by . So the generator’s power
other generators. characteristic is expressed by (7)

B. Theoretical Analysis of Improving Power System Stability (7)

Using SFCL
The simple power system of Fig. 1 which consists of a gen- where:
erator supplying power to a network via transformers and two rotor angle of synchronous generator
parallel transmission lines was used to investigate how well the complementary angle of the system impedance angle
SFCL can enhance the stability of the power system following final resistance of SFCL
a three-phase short circuit at the beginning of one of the trans- modulus of the complex input impedance
mission lines. In theoretical analysis, the synchronous machine
can be modeled as a constant voltage source (emf) behind
a transient reactance . The damping and field excitation by
AVR (Automatic Voltage Regulator) and PSS (Power System modulus of complex transfer impedance, see (8)
stabilizer) are neglected. The mechanical power is assumed to
be constant. The equivalent circuits of the model power system
with resistive SFCL are shown in Fig. 2. (8)
902
Fig. 3. Diagram of the power angle of the generator with and without SFCL.
The power limit of the generator is obtained by . electrical torque is quasi zero. Therefore, the generator is accel-
So the power limits without SFCL and with SFCL are given by
(9) and (10), respectively
In case of the worst fault in a network, i.e., a three-phase
short circuit, , the electrical power from the generator
to the system drops, without SFCL, from its prefault value to
zero . The driving mechanical power becomes
much greater than the opposing electrical power and the
rotor begins to accelerate, and may lose synchronism. With
SFCL, it will produce a resistance to increase electrical power
, and consume the kinetic acceler-
ating power. The decelerating torque will force the generator
rotor back toward the equilibrium point or reach an acceptable
steady-state operating point following the fault.
In general, for HV transmission networks, the equiv-
alent resistance is much smaller than that of the equiva-
lent reactance. With SFCL, the power characteristic will
move upwards and power angle shifts left degrees. So
. This means that SFCLs can
enhance the transient stability by increasing the power limit
and enlarging the stability region.
IV. DIGITAL SIMULATION
A. Transient Stability
In order to investigate how well the SFCL can influence the
power system transient stability, we used the simple power
system described in Fig. 2 and Section III to simulate two cases:
with and without SFCL. System simulation parameters are in
per unit. ( , , , ).
The evolution of the power angle of the generator with and
without SFCL is shown in Fig. 3.
A three phase short circuit occurred on the line at 1.2 sec-
onds at the beginning point of the transmission lines connected
to transformer 1, the electrical output power of the generator
is mainly reactive, i.e., the effective power output and related
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON APPLIED SUPERCONDUCTIVITY, VOL. 12, NO. 1, MARCH 2002
Fig. 4. Two radial networks connected via a SFCL.
erated due to the excessive mechanical input torque. As a re-
sult, the power angle of the generator increased. The change of
the internal angle will go to infinity with no SFCL used. This
(9) means that the generator starts to accelerate uncontrollably and
the system becomes unstable.
(10)
On the other hand, in the case of the SFCL, the resistance
appears in the superconducting element of the SFCL due to the
quench phenomenon. This inserted resistance ( ) into
the power system could not only limit the short circuit currents
but also increase the electrical power. So the SFCL could reduce
the excess power of the generator, damp the power swing and
suppress the generator shaft torque oscillations. Fig. 3 shows
that the power angle of the generator was damped with oscilla-
tions and could return to a new stable state.
It is pointed out that SFCL could improve the power charac-
teristic and enhance the transient stability of the power system.
B. Power Quality
In fact, during a short circuit, the voltage drop causes a cor-
responding drop of the power transmission to the networks. In
order to limit the short circuit level of the system below the com-
ponents’ withstand level, radial supply networks could be inter-
connected via SFCL which can keep the voltage level of the
busbar during the fault (Fig. 4).
In case of a short circuit at 0.2 second on system 2, the bus tie
becomes the main routeway of the fault currents, in which the
SFCL could perform most effectively. Without SFCL, the bus
A voltage will drop to 30% of the nominal value ( KV)
which causes problems to sensitive loads. If SFCL is used on
the bus-tie, it can not only decrease the magnitude of the fault
currents but also give lower voltage dips. Fig. 5 shows that the
bus A voltage can be kept on 90% of the nominal level during a
fault, although it could incur somewhat overvoltage. The voltage
dips can be mitigated and the bus voltage can be kept on an
acceptable level during a fault by using the SFCL, thus improve
the power quality.
As it can be seen, parallel connection of radial systems via the
SFCL can improve both the voltage stability, i.e., makes voltage
dips less severe, and the reliability of supply.
YE et al.: APPLICATION STUDIES OF SFCLs IN ELECTRIC POWER SYSTEMS
Fig. 5. Bus A voltage curves with and without SFCL.
V. SELECTION PRINCIPLE OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF SFCLs
In order to enhance the transient stability of power systems,
one of the most important measures is to reduce the equivalent
reactance of the network.
For high voltage power systems, the reactances of lines and
transformers are much larger than their resistances. During fault
conditions, if using reactance-type of SFCLs such as inductive
shielded core SFCL, reactances will be magnetically coupling
to the network to limit the fault current. Short circuit current de-
cays slowly due to the increased time constant of the system.
So it is noted that the value of the inductance must be chosen
carefully cooperating with the current protective devices. In ad-
dition, it needs no current leads, which is especially attractive
for high current applications, since losses of the leads are pro-
portional to their current carrying capability [9]. Compared with
the resistive SFCL, the shielded core SFCL shows the disadvan-
tage of being only applicable for AC-currents and having much
larger size and weight.
On the other hand, resistive type SFCLs like braking resistors,
can not only restrain the fault current but also consume electrical
power of the generators during the fault condition. The resistive
type SFCL can enhance transient stability of the power systems
by suppressing the excessive kinetic energy.
For low voltage power systems, especially the distribution
system, the resistances of the feeder cables are larger than their
reactances. If the faults occur at the end of the feeder cable, the
fault current levels may rise to exceed the available switchgear
interruption ratings due to the distributed capacitances of the
feeder cables. In order to use the light circuit breakers and avoid
increasing the cross-sectional areas of the feeder cables, reac-
tance or resistive type SFCLs can be assembled at the end of the
feeder positions to limit the fault currents.
Theoretical analysis and digital simulations show that the
power system stability can be enhanced by introducing SFCLs
903
into the power grid. If SFCLs are used at the strategic points
such as bus-tie positions, the voltage dips can be mitigated and
the bus voltage can be kept on an acceptable level during a fault,
thus improving the power quality as well.
Benefits of SFCLs in this application include the following:
separate buses can be tied together without a large increase in
the fault duty on either bus, a large transformer can be used
to meet increasing demands on a bus without circuit breaker
upgrades, a low impedance transformer can be used to maintain
voltage regulation at the new power level and damage to the
transformer is limited.
VI. FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS ON THE INTERACTION BETWEEN
SFCLS AND POWER SYSTEMS
An SFCL can be effectively used to increase the transient sta-
bility and the power quality without upgrading the power grids.
However, to employ an SFCL properly, other factors need to be
considered.
• Coordination between SFCLs and the protective devices.
• Recovery characteristic and Open–Close–Open duty.
• Inrush currents of large transformers.
• Operation with other FACTS devices.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to acknowledge the discussions with
Prof. S. S. Chen of Tsinghua University, Prof. C. Y. Li of Peking
University and Prof. Z. X. Han of ZheJiang University, P. R.
China. Thanks are also expressed to Prof. Dr. P. Komarek of
Institute for Technical Physics (ITP), Forschungszentrum Karl-
sruhe (FZK) of Germany.
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