A high temperature superconductor, HTS, tape (100) for detecting a quench in a superconducting magnet. The HTS tape comprises an HTS layer (101) of HTS material supported by a substrate (102). The HTS layer is divided into a plurality of strips (104,105,107). The strips are connected (106) in series along an open path.

The present invention relates to pressure generation apparatus and method for superconducting power equipment and, more particularly, to pressure generation apparatus and method for superconducting power equipment, wherein a pressure system separately arranged to apply pressure to liquid nitrogen in the superconducting power equipment is disposed inside a pressure vessel.

A solid-state circuit breaker and breaking method are disclosed. In an embodiment, the solid-state circuit breaker includes a semiconductor switch; a controller, connected to the semiconductor switch; and an energy absorber, connected in parallel with the semiconductor switch. The controller is configured to obtain an equivalent inductance of a circuit of the solid-state circuit breaker upon a fault occurring in a line. Further, upon the equivalent inductance being greater than an inductance estimated value, the controller is configured to set a second current fault threshold. Finally, upon a fault current of the line reaching the second current fault threshold, the semiconductor switch is controlled to execute a closing operation.

A superconducting current limiter having at least one superconducting conductor (3) wound so as to form a coil (2) extending in a single plane and connecting a first electrical connection terminal to a second electrical connection terminal, an electrically insulating spacer (8) being arranged between two turns of the coil. The superconducting conductor (3) consists of at least two separate superconducting cables (5) wound in parallel and whose ends are electrically connected by the first electrical connection terminal and by the second electrical connection terminal, respectively. An electrically conductive spacer (12) is arranged between two of said separate superconducting cables (5), this electrically conductive spacer (12) being able to be traversed by a cooling fluid.

A superconducting fault current limiter element, comprising: a plurality of tapes, arranged in electrical parallel fashion among one another, wherein at least one tape of the plurality of tapes comprises a superconductor tape, and wherein at least one tape of the plurality of tapes comprises a non-superconductor tape.

A directional overcurrent relay using a superconducting fault current limiter voltage as a relay element includes: a current measuring circuit measuring a current of a line connected from a system power source to a load, a voltage measuring circuit measuring a voltage at both ends of a superconducting fault current limiter connected to the line, and a correcting circuit correcting a tripping time T.sub.trip by using a fault current I.sub.f that is the current of the line and a superconducting fault current limiter voltage V.sub.SFCL that is the voltage at both ends of the superconducting fault current limiter and the tripping time T.sub.trip is maintained consistently regardless of whether the superconducting fault current limiter operates or not.

The invention proposes a high-voltage direct current cut-off device, comprising: in series, a cut-off device and a current limiter; an accumulation line in parallel with the current limiter, an oscillating circuit, in parallel with the cut-off apparatus, comprising an oscillation control switch and having an inductance wherein the accumulation line includes at least two accumulation capacitors, and in that the oscillation line extends from a branch connection point of the accumulation line situated between the two accumulation capacitors, determining a secondary segment of the accumulation line connected to the main conduction line between the current limiter and the main cut-off apparatus so as to form part of the oscillating circuit.

There is described a device for controlling an amount of current within a power distribution network by manipulating the amount of magnetic flux in the device and thus the impedance experienced by the power distribution network across the device. This is achieved by winding a plurality of coils about a magnetically permeable core and by providing the device with a magnetically permeable bridge element that is movable between a fully-open position at which the net magnetic flux generated in the core by alternating currents in each coil is zero, and a fully-closed position at which a net magnetic flux is present in the core.

An apparatus for controlling and monitoring the lifetime of a superconducting fault current limiter. The apparatus may include a processor; and a memory unit coupled to the processor, including a lifetime routine, where the lifetime routine is operative on the processor to monitor the superconducting fault current limiter. The lifetime routine may include a lifetime estimation processor to receive a set of fault information for a fault event of a superconductor tape of the superconducting fault current limiter, determine a present state of the superconductor tape based upon the set of fault information, and determine an estimated lifetime of the superconductor tape based upon the present state. The present state may be determined from additional information such as fault history on the superconducting fault current limiter, as well as a database of superconductor tape behavior with respect to various faults.

A 3-phase superconducting cable system (100) has four 1-phase superconducting cables (A, B, C, D). Interrupting switches (S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6) are arranged at respective first and second ends of a first (A), second (B) and third (C) of the 1-phase superconducting cables, and first connecting switches (S7, S9, S11) and second connecting switches (S8, S10, S12) are connected at a first and a second end, respectively, of the fourth (D) 1-phase superconducting cable. The interrupting switches (S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6) and the first (S7, S9, S11) and second (S8, S10, S12) connecting switches are operable to selectively disconnect one of the first (A), second (B) and third (C) one of the 1-phase superconducting cables from their respective current phase (L1, L2, L3) and to connect the fourth (D) 1-phase superconducting cable to the previously disconnected current phase (L1, L2, L3), effectively replacing the disconnected 1-phase superconducting cable.