SEI, TEPCO to Start Superconducting Cable Demonstration in 2010

Sumitomo Electric Industries (SEI) and Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) announced on Wednesday they start demonstration experiment to connect a high-temperature superconducting cable to TEPCO’s electric power system in 2010. They will connect a superconducting cable with 200-300 meters long to an electric power system inside TEPCO’s transformer station in Yokohama, Japan. This is the first proving test of high-temperature superconducting cable in Japan.The experiment is scheduled for a year starting in autumn 2010 along a 5-year proving plan for high-temperature superconducting cable which is controlled by New Energy & Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) and started in April 2007. A refrigeration system for a superconducting cable will be supplied and operated by Mayekawa Mfg.SEI will supply 66,000V and 200,000kVA high-temperature superconducting cable for the experiment, for which SEI’s DI-BSCCO will be adopted as conductors. DI-BSCCO is a wire of composite oxide which contains bismuth, strontium, calcium and copper developed by SEI in 2004. For the demonstration, DI-BSCCO specialized for alternate current will be adopted, filaments of which are stranded to minimize AC loss.