Duration tests of an experimental high temperature superconducting fault current limiter

The concept of an all-superconducting (AS) mini power plant (MPP) model is presented. An experimental HTS fault current limiter (FCL) for the protection of the generator unit of the AS MPP model was designed. During its lifetime the HTS FCL can be activated thousands of times. Duration tests were performed on the HTS FCL to determine the dependence of the value of the limited current and the voltage of the FCL on the number of activations of the device. The experiments have shown that the parameters of the HTS FCL are approximately constant after three thousand activations. This result indicates that the relevant parameters of the HTS ring used in the device are approximately constant, and that the FCL can be designed and used in the network with predictable parameters.