Short circuit experiment on an FCL coil wound with YBCO tape with a high-resistance stabilizing layer

One of the programs in the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry regarding R&D for developing YBCO conductors is to evaluate the suitability of the conductors in several applications. This paper focuses on one of the expected power applications, namely, a fault current limiter (FCL). YBCO tape conductors with ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD) substrates are used in this work. In order to increase the resistivity of the conductor, which is preferable for FCL applications, the thickness of a protective layer made of silver was decreased as much as possible. After obtaining the required current limiting performance in short sample experiments, a model coil was developed aiming at 6.6 kV-class FCLs. Short circuit experiments were conducted with a short-circuit generator. The coil successfully suppressed a short-circuit current of over 1.4 kA to about 500 A under an applied voltage of 3.8 kV, which is the nominal phase-to-ground voltage. The coil also suppressed a short-circuit current of 17 kA down to 700 A. The experimental results are as expected and show promise toward FCL applications.