Performance of a 1 MV A high temperature superconductors-enabled saturable magnetic core-type fault current limiter

A 1 MV A single-phase DC saturated iron core-type fault current limiter (FCL) employing DC coils manufactured from Bi-2223/Ag high temperature superconductor has been designed, constructed, and tested. The device, configured to respond to a fault occurring on either the positive or negative wave cycle, exhibited instantaneous reaction and reset times. It could clip a continuous applied steady state fault current of 1200 A, and limited a transient peak fault current of 2200 A to the specified current of 100 A. The operation of the device did not produce any significant harmonic contribution from the clipping action, as under fault conditions, 99.96% of the harmonic power spectrum of the clipped waveform contributed to the fundamental, and the non-fault inductance of the FCL was <0.01 mH.