Innovative superconducting energy cables for the implementation of the energy transition

The upcoming energy transition requires the transport of a much higher amount of electrical energy replacing fossil-generated energy into the cities compared with the situation today. Thus, the existing energy cable systems will be challenged in the future like never before. Despite the fact that most of the existing 110 kV cable systems were built in the 1970s and 1980s, and, respectively, service has changed since then, they have never been planned to manage a load or load cycles which they will be exposed to in the future.Since space in the underground of big cities is always an issue, the article promotes another innovative cable technology which brings a lot of advantages for the upcoming challenges. Superconducting cables, called HTS cables, can transport a very high amount of electrical energy at a very small cross-section. The Munich project called Superlink aims to run a 110 kV HTS cable with 500 MVA while the cross-section of the whole three-phase cable will be around 200 mm. Additionally, there are neither thermal nor magnetic field emissions, which enables this cable type to be a real alternative to standard XLPE cables in the future. Since the resistance is much smaller compared to cables with aluminium or copper conductors, the HTS cable will reduce the load of the existing old cable lines while being installed and makes a longer service of the existing cables more likely. Finally, first calculations show the net present value of the HTS cable is much lower than the one of comparable XLPE cable systems. All in all, many advantages which may bring HTS cables more and more in the focus of distribution system operators to use this technology in the near future.