Physica C 504 (2014) 158–162

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Physica C
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/physc

Implementation of superconducting fault current limiter for flexible

operation in the power substation
Chong Suk Song a, Hansang Lee b, Yoon-sung Cho c, Jaewan Suh a, Gilsoo Jang a,⇑
a
School of Electrical Engineering, Korea University, Anam dong, Seonbukgu, Seoul 136-713, Republic of Korea
b
School of Railway & Electrical Engineering, Kyungil University, Hayang-eup, Gyeongsan-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do 712-701, Republic of Korea
c
Department of Electric and Energy Engineering, Catholic University of Daegu, Hayang-eup, Gyeongsan-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do 712-702, Republic of Korea

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The concentration of large-scale power loads located in the metropolitan areas have resulted in high fault
Accepted 18 February 2014 current levels during a fault thereby requiring the substation to operate in the double busbar configura-
Available online 27 February 2014 tion mode. However, the double busbar configuration mode results in deterioration of power system reli-
ability and unbalanced power flow in the adjacent transmission lines which may result in issues such as
Keywords: overloading of lines. This paper proposes the implementation of the superconducting fault current limiter
Superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) (SFCL) to be installed between the two substation busbars for a more efficient and flexible operation of
Power substations
the substation enabling both single and double busbar configurations depending on the system condi-
Bus partitioning
tions for guaranteeing power system reliability as well as fault current limitations. Case studies are being
performed for the effectiveness of the SFCL installation and results are compared for the cases where the
substation is operating in single and double busbar mode and with and without the installation of the
SFCL for fault current mitigation.
Ó 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction the fault current issue and the increase in the power demand would
result in higher levels of fault current that surpasses the system fault
The increase in the power consumption in recent years has re- current limits even with several substations operating in the double
sulted in large-scale power loads concentrated in the load centers busbar mode requiring more substations to operate in this mode and
near the metropolitan region in Korea. This increase has aggravated further degrading the system reliability. In order to solve the issue
the conditions for reliable power system operation resulting in issues previously described, a superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL)
such as high fault current conditions. The Seoul metropolitan power is being installed at the bus tie located between the two busbars par-
system is in the form of a loop system resulting in several paths that allel to the circuit breaker (CB).
contribute in the high levels of fault currents. Due to the continued Diverse studies have been carried out on SFCL application in
increase of fault currents in the power system owing to the rise in power systems to solve different issues due to fault current and
the power demand, power substations close to the load centers oper- other issues in the system. [1,2] introduces the various applications
ate using the double busbar mode to mitigate the fault current flow of the SFCLs in the transmission and distribution networks. [3] pro-
in the power system equipment such as the circuit breakers and poses a smart subtransmission level fault current mitigation solu-
power transformer which is designed to withstand a certain level tion using SFCLs and substation automation system for managing
of fault current. However, the double busbar mode results in deteri- fault current issues in regions with high fault current levels. In this
oration of the power system reliability and disproportionate power paper, a novel operation scheme of the power substation is being
flow in the neighboring transmission lines resulting in uneven load- introduced by installing the SFCL between the two busbars for an
ing of these transmission lines during normal and fault conditions. In efficient operation of the power substation. This paper explains
addition, this double busbar mode does not fundamentally resolve the impact of the SFCL in the substation to resolve the issue of high
fault current in the transmission system level. The simulations have
been performed by installing an SFCL in the transmission system
⇑ Corresponding author. Address: 509, Techno complex, Anam Campus of substations and performing fault current comparison analysis to
Science, Anam-dong 5-ga, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul 136-713, Republic of Korea. Tel.:
verify the effectiveness of the proposed methodology using PSS/e,
+82 2 3290 3246; fax: +82 2 3290 3692.
E-mail addresses: chong_suk@korea.ac.kr (C.S. Song), gjang@korea.ac.kr a power system analysis program. The paper is organized as
(G. Jang). follows: Section 2 discusses about the different operation topologies

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physc.2014.02.017
0921-4534/Ó 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 C.S. Song et al. / Physica C 504 (2014) 158–162 159

of the power substation and proposes the novel SFCL operation system topology. This configuration is to maximize the utilization
scheme for mitigating the high fault current levels. In Section 3, case of the existing CB for a more flexible operation of the substation
studies are performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed no- during normal, fault and reclosing conditions. The operation modes
vel operation scheme by comparing the fault current levels with the are divided into four modes listed below:
existing power substation operation topologies.
 Normal operation mode.
2. System modeling of power substation including SFCL  Fault current mode.
 High fault current mode.
In the Korean Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) system, the  Reclosing mode.
load center is focused in the Seoul metropolitan region which com-
prises more than 40% of the total population. This results in high In the normal operation mode, the power flows through the
fault current levels which would require the replacement of a large high temperature superconductor (HTS) where the resistance of
number of circuit breakers. To reduce the fault current in the sys- the HTS is negligible. The CB during this mode is opened while S/
tem, connection of series reactors or increasing the system imped- W 1 & 2 are closed as shown in Fig. 3(a). In the fault mode, the
ance would not be an appropriate solution since the increase in the HTS is quenched and the resistance is dramatically increased. This
total system impedance would result in voltage instability issues state is continued for a time period equivalent to the mechanical
especially in dense power systems such as the Seoul metropolitan time delay of S/W 1, i.e. the time period for S/W 1 to sense the fault
system. In order to resolve this issue, there are several substations current and open the switch. The fault current now flows through
in the KEPCO system that operate in the double busbar mode for the current limiting resistor/reactor and the HTS is now in the
electrically decoupling the substation into two sections for reduc- recovery mode. This is illustrated in Fig. 3(b). For a fault current
ing the fault current level in the system. This concept for mitigating surpassing the limit of the 154 kV CBs, the S/W 2 connected to
the fault current using this operation technique is illustrated in the SFCL is opened to separate the two busbars during this extreme
Fig. 1. However, this would require additional substations operating condition. This mode is described in Fig. 3(c). When the fault is re-
in the double busbar mode to mitigate high levels of fault current moved from the system, the CB is closed until the HTS is fully
and may result in reliability issues such as overloading of transmis- recovered for normal operation. After full recovery of the SFCL,
sion lines in the near future or even during N-1 contingencies. For the S/W 1 connected in series with the HTS is closed while the
operating the substation in the single busbar mode as well as mit- CB is being opened. This mode is shown in Fig. 3(d). The advantage
igating the fault current, an SFCL is being introduced between the of this substation configuration is that no severe modifications are
two busbars of the power substation for a substation operating in made in the system topology by connecting the SFCL parallel to the
the double busbar mode. The system model is divided into two bus tie circuit breaker. Since the SFCL is connected in parallel to the
main parts, the power substation model and the SFCL model [4– bus tie located between the two substation busbars, unlike the pre-
6], which is installed parallel to the CB at the bus tie. Fig. 2 describes vious applications of SFCLs which are connected in series [7], the
the system configuration of the substation including the SFCL. circuit breaker and the SFCL not only provide each other a bypass
circuit but also does not majorly increase the system impedance
2.1. Novel superconductive fault current limiter (SFCL) operational value due to its parallel connection. Also, the system operator
scheme in power substations has more options to control the substation since the operator can
use both the single and double busbar mode for keeping the sys-
The SFCL is connected parallel to the CB located between the tem under reliable conditions and fault currents within permissi-
busbars as shown in Fig. 2(a) to minimize the changes in the ble limits.

Fig. 1. Comparison of fault current paths between single and double busbar configuration.
160 C.S. Song et al. / Physica C 504 (2014) 158–162

Fig. 2. Substation configuration of a typical 154 kV bus including SFCL at the bus tie.

Table 1
Simulation cases (substations operating in double and single busbar mode).

Case Scenario
I (Double busbar mode) Base case
Merged bus (1300–1301)
SFCL installation (1300–1301)
Additional SFCL installation (1310–1311
and 1260–1261)
II (Single busbar mode) Base case
SFCL installation at 1250
SFCL installation at 1200 and 1250

reduce the impact of fault current, especially in the Seoul metro-

politan area, several substations are operated in the double busbar
mode. In order to assess the impact of the SFCL connected between
the substation busbars, two scenarios are being utilized:

(I) Installation of SFCL in substations operating in double bus-

bar mode.
(II) Installation of SFCL in substations operating in single busbar
mode.

For the simulation studies, the CLR which is of the reactor type
is set to 10X and the allowed fault current level in the system for
the circuit breakers is 40 kA. The case study scenarios and the sub-
stations considered for SFCL installation is arranged in Tables 1 and
2 respectively.

Fig. 3. Operation mechanism of 154 kV SFCL in power substation. (a) Normal Table 2
operation mode, (b) fault current mode, (c) high fault current mode and d) reclosing Substations considered for SFCL installation.
mode. Substation name Bus no. Operation mode
Shin Paju3 1300, 1301 Double busbar mode
3. Case studies Shin Uijeong1 1260, 1261 Double busbar mode
Shin Paju1 1310, 1311 Double busbar mode
Shin Uijeong3 1250 Single busbar mode
The KEPCO system is mainly comprised of 345/154 kV and 154/
Shin Gapyeong3 1200 Single busbar mode
22.9 kV substations in the transmission system level. In order to
 C.S. Song et al. / Physica C 504 (2014) 158–162 161

Table 3
Comparison of fault current for SFCL installation at power substation operating in double busbar mode (bold values for fault current violations).

Bus number Bus name Partitioned bus Merged bus SFCL installation (1300–1301) Additional SFCL (1310–1311) Additional SFCL (1260–1261)
1300 Shin Paju3 40.5275 46.6736 33.1158 28.5609 28.548
1301 Shin Paju3S 40.0658 46.6493 36.6333 35.3253 36.3274
1260 Shin Uijeong1 43.1754 43.1759 41.4151 40.4675 34.2697
1261 Shin Uijeong1S 13.6426 13.6428 13.5134 13.4265 37.5553
1310 Shin Paju1 45.8241 46.5887 42.1164 28.7893 28.7876
1311 Shin Paju1S 36.3861 36.4589 33.9934 35.0185 35.0057
1400 Yangju3 40.7739 40.7764 33.2563 30.014 30.0809

Fig. 5. Fault current reduction due to installation of SFCL at power substation

operating in single busbar mode.

Uijeong1 substations are the substations where the SFCLs are in-
stalled in the simulation case studies. Table 3 shows the compari-
son of the fault current for the cases when the substation is
operating in the double busbar mode (partitioned bus), single bus-
bar mode (merged bus) and SFCL installed between the two bus-
bars. It is observed that the fault current is greatly reduced for
most of the buses when the SFCL is installed between the 1300
and 1301 buses (345 kV) and all the fault current violations are re-
moved for the case when additional SFCLs are installed between
1310–1311 and 1260–1261 buses. Fig. 4a shows the effect of fault
current mitigation for an SFCL installation in Shin Paju substation
where the blue, red and green bars indicate the fault current level
Fig. 4. Fault current reduction due to installation of SFCL at power substation for the case when the Shin Paju substation is operating in the dou-
operating in double busbar mode, (a) single SFCL installation and (b) multi SFCL ble busbar mode, when the two busbars in the substation is
installation.
merged and when an SFCL is installed parallel to the CB at the
bus tie respectively. Fig. 4b) is the comparison of the fault current
3.1. Substations operating in double busbar mode when additional SFCLs are between 1310–1311 and 1260–1261.

In the first case, the SFCL is being implemented in the case 3.2. Substations operating in single busbar mode
where the substation is operating in the double busbar mode.
The data used for the simulation is the 2013 KEPCO system data In the second case, the SFCL is being implemented in the case
where three substations namely Shin Paju3, Shin Paju1 and Shin where the substation is operating in the single busbar mode and

Table 4
Comparison of fault current for SFCL installation at power substation operating in single busbar mode (bold values for fault current violations).

Bus number Bus name Base case SFCL installation at 1250 SFCL installation at 1200 and 1250
1300 Shin Paju3 34.7017 31.9294 31.8051
1301 Shin Paju3S 34.6742 31.954 31.8302
1260 Shin Uijeong1 44.5593 38.0674 38.081
1261 Shin Uijeong1S 31.0369 14.533 14.4333
1310 Shin Paju1 34.7079 30.1519 30.1034
1311 Shin Paju1S 24.7079 24.1685 24.1374
1400 Yangju3 38.9923 33.5195 33.4016
1250 Shin Uijeong3 40.8746 27.9132/34.5423 27.8679/34.4027
1200 Shin Gapyeong3 50.0428 47.7578 39.7281/39.7281
162 C.S. Song et al. / Physica C 504 (2014) 158–162

results in high levels of fault current that may exceed the pre- Acknowledgements
scribed limits in the near future owing to the increase in the elec-
tric demand. In this case study, the data used is the 2016 KEPCO This work was supported by the Human Resources Develop-
system data where the Shin Uijeong3 and Shin Gapyeong3 substa- ment of Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and
tion surpasses the fault current limit. Table 4 shows the compari- Planning (KETEP) grant funded by the Korea Government Ministry
son between the base case, the SFCL installation at 1250 (Shin of Knowledge Economy (No. 20134030200340) and by the Power
Uijeong) substation and 1200 (Shin Gapyeong) & 1250 substation Generation & Electricity Delivery Core Technology Program of the
where the two entries for 1250 and 1200 is the fault current of Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning
each busbar when the two busbars in the substation is electrically (KETEP) granted financial resource from the Ministry of Trade,
split due to the SFCL installation. Fig. 5 shows the comparison of Industry & Energy, Republic of Korea (No. 20131020000100).
simulation scenario for the single busbar mode case where the
fault current is effectively mitigated. References

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