AMSC Wins Two New Department Of Energy Superconductor Power Grid Projects

Westborough, MA — American Superconductor Corporation, a leading energy technologies company, recently announced that the United States Department of Energy is providing up to $21.7M in funding for the following two new AMSC high temperature superconductor (HTS) projects:

• AMSC has been selected to lead the development of key components required to commercially deploy an HTS power cable system powered by AMSC's second generation (2G) HTS wire (branded as 344 superconductors) in the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) power grid. This will be a transmission voltage (138kV) extension of the cable system that is currently being installed in LIPA's grid, which utilizes first generation HTS wire and which is expected to be energized later this year. AMSC will serve as project manager and wire supplier, and has chosen Nexans as the cable manufacturer and Air Liquide Advanced Technologies U.S. LLC as the provider of the cryogenics system. The DOE has allocated $9M in cost sharing to this $18M project.
• AMSC has also been selected to develop and perform in-grid testing of a three-phase 115-kV fault current limiter (FCL) using the company's 344 superconductors. This FCL will feature a proprietary Siemens-developed, low-inductance coil technology that makes the FCL invisible to the grid until it switches to a resistive state. Earlier this year, AMSC and Siemens announced they had achieved commercial-grade performance levels for a medium-voltage FCL. The demonstration will occur at a location operated by team member Southern California Edison. AMSC will serve as project manager. The team also includes: Siemens AG (Germany), Nexans (France), the University of Houston (Houston, TX) and Los Alamos National Laboratory (Los Alamos, NM). The DOE has allocated $12.7M in cost sharing to this $25 million project.

In the DOE's announcement (see http://www.doe.gov/news/5180.htm), DOE Secretary Samuel W. Bodman said, "Modernizing our congested and constrained electric grid - through the development of advanced, new technologies - is vital to delivering reliable and affordable power to the American people. As demand for electricity continues to grow, we must take steps now to identify potential problems, identify solutions, and deploy new technologies to provide a secure and steady energy supply. We look forward to the success of this research and recognize it will help us realize President Bush's goal of a more modern and efficient electricity system."

These represent two of the five new cost-shared projects the DOE is sponsoring to help accelerate the modernization of the U.S. electricity grid using HTS technology. AMSC said it also expected to compete for wire orders from one or more of the other DOE-funded power cable and FCL projects.

Utilities stand to benefit greatly from the emergence of HTS cables and FCLs. With the ability to conduct up to 10 times the power of copper cables of the same diameter, HTS power cables hold tremendous promise, particularly for urban and metropolitan areas. FCLs act as high-voltage surge protectors for power grids. The increasing power being carried on grids today is creating ever larger power surges, which are known in the utility industry as fault currents. Circuit breakers are being used to protect the network today and prevent widespread blackouts. In many areas, however, the fault currents are approaching and exceeding the limits of today's most powerful breakers. FCLs are being developed to address this concern.

"We are delighted that the DOE has chosen AMSC to lead two superconductor projects in its initiative to modernize the U.S. power infrastructure," stated AMSC founder and CEO Greg Yurek. "These DOE projects provide an immediate market for our 344 superconductors once we commence volume production of this wire in December 2007."

SOURCE: AMSC