World first achieved by SuperGrid Institute

SCARLET’s Christophe Creusot and his colleagues at SuperGrid Institute recently achieved a world first for applied superconductivity: 50 kV DC breaking using a superconducting fault current limiter in combination with a circuit breaker.

The current was limited from 43 kAp to 5.5 kA, namely by 87% compared with the prospective current, and the DC circuit breaker then cut off the remaining current.

This work is part of SCARLET’s WP 5 focussing on system protection. The compact environmentally friendly technology demonstrated here reduces the size of DC protection equipment on the ground by 40-50% and is compatible with both AC and DC networks.

All relevant information is included in the SuperGrid press release, and can be viewed here.