Fabrication and Installation Results for Albany HTS Cable

The Albany project has installed a high temperature superconducting (HTS) cable with a 350 m length in 34.5 kV and 800 Arms in the real power grid of the National Grid Power Company. The type of the cable is a 3 cores in a cryostat. Bi-2223 wires manufactured with SEI new sintering method, CT-OP, is used as both superconducting conductor and shield. The Cable was manufactured and shipped to the Albany test site after passing various tests such as Ic measurement, voltage tests, pressurized tests, and so on. Cable installations into a 320 m long conduits and a 30 m long conduit under ground was completed successfully. The cable was pulled with 2.5 ton tension, which is within its allowable limit. A joint between the 320 m cable and the 30 m cable was assembled in an underground vault. Cable terminations were also assembled at both ends of the cable. After all of the installation, the initial cooling was conducted successfully and then in-grid operation was started on July 20th in 2006 after confirmation of cable performance.