The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) plan to
regulate carbon emissions is just the latest challenge facing the U.S.
electric power system. Technological innovation is disrupting old ways
of doing business and accelerating grid modernization. Last year, AEE
released Advanced Energy Technologies for Greenhouse Gas Reduction,
a report detailing the use, application, and benefits of 40 specific
advanced energy technologies and services. This post is one in a series drawn from the technology profiles within that report.
Superconductivity
is a property of some materials whereby electrical resistance, which
normally decreases gradually with decreasing temperature, suddenly drops
to zero below a critical temperature. Advances in materials have
created high-temperature superconductors (HTS), whose relatively “warm”
critical temperatures of -315° to -230°F allow for the use of less
expensive and easier to handle refrigerants such as liquid nitrogen. HTS
transmission passes electricity through a cable that is insulated with
high-pressure liquid nitrogen pumped by refrigeration equipment. The
insulation allows HTS transmission to carry 10 times the power of a
standard cable of similar thickness with almost no power losses. These
lines can connect directly to the existing AC transmission network to
add highly efficient transmission capacity that can relieve congestion
without the need for high voltages.Commercial applications of HTS for
transmission are beginning to unfold. Several utilities have begun to
use HTS transmission for projects in urban areas that do not have space
for large transmission towers or extra transformer equipment. For
example, the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA), using technology from
American Superconductor and Nexans, installed a superconducting AC
transmission cable with 574 MW of capacity in a right-of-way only one
meter wide. Because of the high energy density of the cables, LIPA was able to substantially increase transmission capacity while utilizing existing underground utility conduits.
The
ability of HTS to relieve transmission bottlenecks allows for more
efficient operation of the transmission network as well as allowing for
more efficient generator dispatch, which can help lower emissions and
reduce transmission energy losses. In addition, HTS transmission avoids
most of the siting challenges that affect traditional transmission
projects. Because HTS lines do not emit or receive interference, placing
transmission lines in close proximity to each other does not hinder
their operation or subject nearby objects to electromagnetic fields.
This allows for the use of much narrower rights-of-way, and for HTS
cables to be packed tightly underground, reducing land requirements and
enabling the siting of lines where it would otherwise be difficult or
impossible.
http://theenergycollective.com/coley-girouard/2217856/advanced-energy-technology-week-high-temperature-superconducting-hts-transmis
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