Modelling and analysis of resistive superconducting fault current limiter

Abstract

Increase in the demand and consumption of electrical energy has led to increase in the system fault levels. Superconducting Fault-current limiters (SFCL) offer ideal performance in electrical power system. Superconducting Fault Current Limiters (SFCLs) are used in power system network to mitigate the overcurrent and its prominent effects. Nowadays, Coated Conductors (CCs) are widely used for novel design of SFCL for such applications. The thermal and electrical behaviors of different configurations of SFCL in the presence of over-critical current are studied in detail to master its performance in a power grid. An algorithm to solve the differential equations characterizing the superconductingmaterial is developed using the Runge-Kutta method. In this report, comparative study on the operational characteristics of Resistive-SFCL based on BSSCO and YBCO Coated Conductors under fault condition is analyzed for an 110KV/9KA power system. Also Electro-thermal Model of Coated Conductor is implemented in MATLAB software. The developed models accurately predicted the current-time waveforms achievable with the limiters for an improved current limiting behavior during fault condition and even the restraining the conditions upsetting the thermal stability of the SFCLs. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed Resistive-SFCL, several case studies of Coated Conductors have been carried out in MATLAB. The results show the choice of optimal configuration of CCs as SFCL which effectively improves the thermal stability and current limiting characteristics under fault condition in the network.