5402804 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON APPLIED SUPERCONDUCTIVITY, VOL. 23, NO.

3, JUNE 2013

Status of a 275 kV Class REBCO Superconducting

Cable Development
S. Mukoyama, M. Yagi, T. Mitsuhashi, T. Nomura, J. Ten, R. Nakayama, T. Ohkuma, O. Maruyama, Y. Aoki,
T. Saitoh, N. Amemiya, A. Ishiyama, Member, IEEE, and N. Hayakawa, Member, IEEE

Abstract—The REBCO high-temperature superconducting ca-

ble, rated at 275 kV and 3 kA, was developed in the Materials and
Power Applications of Coated Conductors project in 2008. The
cable is expected to be put to practical use as a backbone power
line in the future because the transmission capacity is about the
same as the UHV overhead transmission line. Transmission loss
is significantly reduced by using superconducting wires instead of
Cu or Al conductors. Furukawa Electric plans a demonstration
of the 275 kV high-temperature superconducting cable. The cable
system consists of a 30-m cable, terminations, a cable joint, and
a cooling system. The 30-m cable has already been manufactured
and installed on a test site. In this demonstration, various electrical
evaluations will be conducted, such as a long-term test under a
current of 3 kA, and the test voltage will be determined assuming
30 years of insulation degradation.
Index Terms—AC loss, coated conductor, high voltage, power
cable.

I. I NTRODUCTION Fig. 1. Structure of the 275 kV-3 kA YBCO HTS cable.

areas that have 500 kV or 275 kV transmission voltages.

H IGH-TEMPERATURE superconducting (HTS) cables
are considered next generation transmission lines because
they are compact, lightweight, and has large capacity and
low loss compared to conventional cables. In particular, since
REBCO tape called coated conductor or 2G wire provides high
critical current, high magnetic-field properties, and low AC
loss, the HTS cables are expected to become more attractive
than other kinds of superconducting wires.
Typical Japanese power networks from power plants to con-
sumers are constructed of overhead lines from power plants
to the urban areas and underground lines within the urban
Manuscript received October 8, 2012; accepted January 15, 2013. Date of
publication January 28, 2013; date of current version May 4, 2013. This work
was supported by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development
Organization (NEDO).
S. Mukoyama, M. Yagi, T. Mitsuhashi, T. Nomura, J. Ten, and
R. Nakayama are with Furukawa Electric, Ichihara, Chiba 290, Japan (e-mail:
mukoyama@ch.furukawa.co.jp).
T. Ohkuma and O. Maruyama with ISTEC SRL, Shinonome, Koto-ku, Tokyo
135-0062, Japan.
Y. Aoki is with Showa Cable System, MinamiHashimoto, Chuo-ku,
Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-0253, Japan.
T. Saitoh is with Fujikura, Rokusaki, Sakura, Chiba 285-8550, Japan.
N. Amemiya is with Kyoto University, Kyoto-Daigaku-Katsura, Nishikyo,
Kyoto 615-8510, Japan.
A. Ishiyama is with Waseda University, Okubo, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 169-
8555, Japan.
N. Hayakawa is with Nagoya Univercity, Furoucho, Chigusa-ku, Nagoya
464-8603, Japan.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TASC.2013.2243374
1051-8223/$31.00 © 2013 IEEE
These transmission lines need to feed several gigawatt power,
and most of bulk power lines in urban aria have changed to
underground cables. However, the power transmission capacity
of conventional XLPE cable and Oil filled cable (OF cable)
is measured in several hundreds of megawatts because of the
restrictions of current transmission heating.
If we develop 275 kV class HTS cable, the cables could
transmit electrical power of 1500 MW on one circuit line
with the possibility of laying it in 1/3 the space compared to
conventional cable. The Materials and Power Applications of
Coated Conductors (M-PACC) project aims to develop next
generation power equipment, such as cable, transfer, and SMES
to achieve energy conservation, high efficiency, and economic
benefits by using REBCO wire. FEC is developing a 275 kV
to 3 kA HTS power cable in the M-PACC project. We are
preparing a feasibility demonstration with 30 m of 275 kV,
3 kA HTS cable.
II. C ABLE D ESIGN OF 275 kV 3 kA HTS C ABLE
Fig. 1 shows the structure of the 275 kV, 3 kA YBCO HTS
cable. The single core HTS cable is composed of an HTS cable
core in one cryostat pipe. The HTS core consists of a hollow
copper stranded former, two-layer HTS conductor, an electrical
insulation layer, a monolayer HTS shield, a stabilization copper
layer, and a protective layer. The copper former and the stabi-
lization copper layer play a role in overcurrent protection. Since
the cryostat pipe needs flexibility and good thermal insulation
performance, we chose a vacuum insulation pipe constructed
MUKOYAMA et al.: STATUS OF A 275 kV CLASS REBCO SUPERCONDUCTING CABLE DEVELOPMENT 5402804

Fig. 2. AC losses of a GZO-YBCO conductor and a MgO-YBCO conductor.

Fig. 3. Cumulative probability of partial discharge initial electrical stress of
The GZO-YBCO conductor was measured at various temperatures. AC losses
the model cables with 1, 10, and 20 mm insulation thickness.
are presented after normalization by the critical current and current frequency.

of coaxial corrugated pipes wrapped with multilayer superin-

sulation. The outer layer is made of a polyethylene sheath like
conventional power cable.
The 275 kV cable needs thick electric insulation of more
than 20 mm. The insulation is made from paper or a polymer
material, which has low thermal conductivity. Cable loss, such
as AC loss and dielectric loss, needs to be reduced in order to
suppress the temperature increase in the conductor due to the
cable loss. One of the targets in the development is that the
cable loss is reduced to less than 0.8 W/m, which is decided in
consideration of economically competitiveness and conductor
temperature limitation. To obtain a low cable loss, we have
researched two technologies. One addresses AC loss and the
other addresses dielectric loss.
The method of AC loss reduction was to adjust the width of
the tape to 3 mm and to closely wind the tape on the former by
maintaining a small gap between tapes [3]. The HTS conductor
was fabricated using those 3 mm wide tapes used a Gd2Zr2O7
(GZO) buffer layer, and the AC loss of this conductor was
measured. The Ic of the conductor was 6270 A at 77.3 K and
9020 A at 73.7 K, respectively. The AC loss of the conductor
at 3 kArms was achieved at 0.124 W/m at 73.7 K. as shown
by “♦” in Fig. 2. AC losses normalized by (Ic2 × frequency)
were presented to compare AC losses of different Ic conductors
in Fig. 2. Moreover, on the project, the YBCO wires on MgO
buffered substrates were supplied to the cable conductors. The
conductor using MgO-YBCO tapes had higher critical current
of 7382 A at 77.3 K. The AC loss shown by “•” in Fig. 2 was
achieved at 0.183 W/m at 3 kA, 77 K. The total cable loss
consisting of AC loss and dielectric loss was accomplished at
less than 0.8 W/m, which was the target of the development.
The cold dielectric insulation that is composed of liquid
nitrogen (LN2)/polypropylene (PP) laminated paper is similar
to the insulation of the oil filled cable that is composed of
oil/pp laminated paper. It was regarded as the most promising
insulation system for HTS cable, since cable insulation got
obtained good dielectric property and reliability on the 500 m
cable demonstration [4]. We have to reduce dielectric loss, pp
laminated paper with a higher pp ratio of 60% (paper-A) was
used instead of 40% (paper-B), which was used in the previous
Fig. 4. Cumulative probability of ac breakdown stress of the model cables
with 1 mm insulation thickness.
low voltage HTS cable. The dielectric loss of paper-A was
estimated to be 0.6 W/m, which is almost 20% smaller than
that of paper-B.
The electric insulation of the 275 kV HTS cable was de-
signed in consideration of AC withstand voltage, impulse with-
stand voltage, partial discharge inception stress (PDIE), and the
V-t characteristics of the insulation. We adopted a special partial
discharge-free design for the insulation under any AC voltage
after the 500 m cable demonstration.
We took the design values of the various breakdown stresses
and the partial discharge stress from the model cable test. All
data were plotted on a Weibull probability chart, and the PDIE
of 0.1% PD probability was obtained from the Weibull proba-
bility shown in Fig. 3. AC design stress was also obtained from
the Weibull probability shown in Fig. 4. From the procedures,
AC design stress was set at 37 kV/mm with 0.1% probability.
Impulse design stress was calculated as 83 kV/mm from
the Weibull probability of 0.1% from the results of the model
cable test with thicknesses of 1 mm and 10 mm. We conducted
an impulse test with a 275 kV class model cable that had
a thickness of 24 mm. The model cable withstood impulse
voltage of ±1155 kV, which is stress of more than 83 kV/mm
as shown in Fig. 5.
5402804 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON APPLIED SUPERCONDUCTIVITY, VOL. 23, NO. 3, JUNE 2013

Fig. 7. Layout of the 30 m 275 kV HTS cable in a feasibility demonstration.

Fig. 5. Cumulative probability of impulse breakdown stress of the model
cables with 1, 10, and 24 mm insulation thickness. TABLE I
D ESIGN OF 275 kV–3 kA HTS C ABLE

Fig. 6. V-t characteristics of ac breakdown stress. The breakdown stresses

were obtained by ac voltage test using the model cables with 1 mm insulation
thickness.

The thickness of the electrical insulation layer is derived

from the calculation of (1):
   
V
t = r · exp −1 (1)
E·r
where V is set to the maximum voltage (kV or kVrms) during
tests and operations, r is the outer radius of the high voltage
conductor of 17.7(= 35.4/2) mm, and E is the design stress
of 22 kVrms/mm (AC) and 83 kV/mm (Imp). We configured
the impulse test voltage as 1155 kV and the AC test voltage as
310 kV. Both voltages were applied to the cable for the AC
voltage test and the impulse withstand voltage test. The insula-
Fig. 8. Diagram of the cooling system for the 30 m HTS cable demonstration.
tion of the 275 kV cable was up to 22 mm. Confirmation was
made that the dielectric loss of the 275 kV cable was derived as
such as an outdoor-type termination, a cable joint, and a liquid
0.60 W/m from the measurement values of permittivity ε and
nitrogen circulative cooling system. The 30 m cable has been
dielectric dissipation factor tan δ.
fabricated in accordance with the cable specification summa-
We carried out the V-t test under AC voltage using 1 mm
rized in Table I. HTS cable was installed in a horseshoe shape.
insulation thickness in mini-model cable. The N-value of the
The terminations were connected at both ends of the cable. The
V-t character concerning breakdown stress was obtained as
cable joint was placed at one straight section. Both terminations
shown in Fig. 6, and the value was chosen at n = 50.
were connected to three conventional XLPE cables to make a
closed circle for current loading.
III. 275 kV C ABLE S YSTEM FOR L ONG
The circulative cooling system was installed alongside the
T ERM L OADING T EST
system, and feed pipes were connected to the terminations. Sub-
Fig. 7 shows a layout of the entire 30 m 275 kV, 3 kA HTS cooled liquid nitrogen flows from one termination to the other,
cable system. For this demonstration, the FEC manufactured a cooling the whole system below 77 K. Fig. 8 shows a diagram
30 m HTS cable. Moreover, the FEC prepared an apparatus, of the cooling system. The sub-cooled liquid nitrogen is made
MUKOYAMA et al.: STATUS OF A 275 kV CLASS REBCO SUPERCONDUCTING CABLE DEVELOPMENT
TABLE II
S UMMARY OF T ESTS ON 5 m S AMPLE AND 30 m
C OMPLETE C ABLE S YSTEMS
in a sub cooler tank, where circulated liquid nitrogen cooled by
the evacuation method of saturation liquid nitrogen.
IV. T EST C ONDITION OF 275 kV HTS
C ABLE D EMONSTRATION
The tests conducted in this demonstration are intended to
confirm the satisfactory properties of a cable system in order
to utilize the HTS cable in power networks. We referred to JEC
3401 and IEC 62067, which specify the test requirements of
high voltage cable extruded solid insulation, for determining
the 275 kV HTS cable at 30 m.
The tests listed in Table II will be performed on a 5 m sample
and a completed 30 m cable in the demonstration. The sample
is cut off from the completed cable before shipment.
Each test voltage was determined on the basis of JEC 3408
because the developing cable would be used in Japanese power
networks in the future. The AC test voltage of 310 kV was the
maximum abnormal voltage that would occurred during the one
line grounding fault. The voltage of 310 kV was derived from
multiplying the highest line voltage of 300√kV by the increase
in the coefficient at load rejection of 1.79/ 3. The impulse test
voltage of 1155 kV was given by multiplying the maximum
lighting withstand voltage of 1050 kV by a tolerance of 1.1.
The voltage of the long-term load test in the table was
calculated by (2). The voltage was provided to correspond to
the one-month test duration for operation of 30 years
   1
Um 30 years · 365 days n
V = √ · (2)
3 30 days
where Um was the highest operating voltage of 300 kV, and n
was lifetime coefficient of 50 from Fig. 6.
Since the AC test voltage of IEC 62067 was higher than one
of the JEC, we additionally plan to conduct AC voltage test 2
and AC voltage test 3. On these AC voltage tests, the cable
will be subjected to a voltage of 320 kV (2.0 U0) and 400 kV
(2.5 U0).
5402804
Fig. 9. Photo of 30 m 275 kV 3 kA cable set up for long-term loading test.
V. P RESENT S TATUS OF THE D EMONSTRATION
The demonstration will be carried out in the test site of
Shenyang Furukawa Cable Inc. at Shenyang in China. The
cable and the cable accessories have already been constructed
and the cooling system is being adjusted now. Cable tests will
start in middle of October, 2012. Fig. 9 shows the constructed
30 m cable system.
VI. C ONCLUSION
FEC has taken part in M-PACC project, and has been re-
sponsible for the development of a 275 kV/3 kA HTS cable
using REBCO wires. One of the important technical targets was
to reduce cable transmission loss to less than 0.8 W/m/phase.
Since a cable conductor was manufactured with 3 mm-wide
wires and the insulation was conformed of high PP ration lam-
inated paper, the cable loss was achieved to less than 0.8 W/m
at 3 kA. Moreover developments of the elemental technologies
needed to cable design have been finished, and the 30 m HTS
cable was designed and manufactured. We installed the cable,
its accessories, and the cooling system by the end of September.
The initial test and long term test will start soon.
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N. Hayakawa, “Development of YBCO high-Tc superconducting power
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[6] JEC-3408-1997 in Japanese, Nov. 20, 1997.
[7] IEC 62067 edition 1.1 2006-03, Aug. 19, 2007.