Effectiveness of Superconducting Fault Current Limiting Transformers in Power Systems

Superconducting devices have emerged in many applications during the last few decades. They offer many advantages, including high efficiency, compact size, and superior performance. However, the main drawback of these devices is the high cost. An option to reduce the high cost and improve the cost-benefit ratio is to integrate two functions into one device. This paper presents the superconducting fault current limiting transformer (SFCLT) as a superior alternative to normal power transformers. The transformer has superconducting windings and also provides fault current limiting capability to reduce high fault currents. The SFCLT is tested in two power system models: A 7 bus wind farm-based model simulated in PSCAD and on the 80 bus simplified Australian power system model simulated in real-Time digital simulator. Various conditions were studied to investigate the effectiveness of the fault current limiting transformer.