Journal of Superconductivity and Novel Magnetism (2020) 33:1927–1931

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10948-020-05508-z

REVIEW

Introduction of 35 kV km Level Domestic Second Generation High

Temperature Superconducting Power Cable Project
in Shanghai, China
Wei Xie 1 & Bengang Wei 1 & Zhoufei Yao 1

Received: 25 February 2020 / Accepted: 8 April 2020 / Published online: 6 May 2020
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020

Abstract
This paper introduces the basic situation of the 35-kV domestic high temperature superconducting (HTS) power cable project in
Shanghai. The target of this project is to construct and put into operation the first 35-kV km level three-phase turn-key HTS
power cable project in the world. The cable transmission capacity, cable routing selection, cable structure design, cooling system
configuration, etc. of the project are introduced. The project is implemented by the State Grid Corporation Shanghai Electric
Power Company. A 35-kV, 1.2-km-long 220-kV inter-substation connecting HTS cable line will be constructed in the core urban
area of Shanghai. So far, the type test of the HTS power cable system has been completed, and the construction of the project has
begun. The project is expected to be completed and put into operation in the second half of 2020.

Keywords High temperature superconducting (HTS) . Urban power supply . Power cable

1 Introduction used as the main channel of the transmission network to real-

With the development of high temperature superconducting
(HTS) technology, the working temperature of the supercon-
ductor has increased to the liquid nitrogen temperature zone,
which makes the application of HTS technology in the power
system possible [1, 2]. Superconducting cables can transport
large-capacity power with a small transmission channel and a
high voltage level, which is currently considered to be an
important means to solve high-density power transmission in
large cities [3]. The superconducting cable has an operation
loss of 20–70% lower than that of a conventional cable, and a
transmission capacity 2–5 times of that of a conventional ca-
ble in the same voltage level [4]. With its large capacity and
low loss characteristics, it can be used as the connecting line
between substations for the load transmission between buses.
It can be used in large cities with scarce land resources and in
areas where cable ducts are difficult to be retrofitted, to solve
the problem of large capacity using small channels and ensure
the normal supply of electricity. In the future, it can also be
* Bengang Wei
wbgsj@126.com
1
State Grid Shanghai Municipal Electric Power Company,
Shanghai 200122, China
ize low-voltage and large-capacity transmission, thereby re-
ducing the investment in other major equipment such as
switches and transformers, saving land area, and reducing
the total project cost. Judging from the operation results and
experiences of the existing superconducting cable demonstra-
tion projects over the world [5–15], the superconducting cable
has sufficient operational reliability to meet the requirements
of long-term reliable operation of the power grid. Meanwhile,
the superconducting cable is gradually becoming mature in
terms of construction and technological economy. It fulfills
the technical conditions as well as accumulates the experience
for promoting its application in a wider range.
On the basis of above, the State Grid Shanghai Electric
Power Company proposed to build a 35-kV HTS power ca-
ble demonstration line in the downtown area of Shanghai in
combination with the power supply demand in 2017. As a
link line, the superconducting cable takes the advantages of
large transmission capacity to enhance the power supply ca-
pacity in the area and improve the reliability of power supply.
Although the cost of the HTS power cable system is much
higher than that of the conventional XLPE cable, the trans-
mission capacity can replace 4–6 times of the capacity of
conventional cable, which is conducive to saving under-
ground pipe space and making up for its disadvantage in
cost.
1928
Fig. 1 Composition of the HTS power cable system
2 Schematics of the Project
The project has been schemed since 2016, based on the actual
demand of the power grid and the rapid development of
Shanghai’s superconducting industry. It takes the advantages
of superconducting strip and cable technology research in
Shanghai, utilizing the technology and industrial advantages
of HTS cable manufacturing, refrigeration system design in-
tegration, cable joints, and terminal accessory design and
manufacturing.
Due to the tight underground corridors in the urban center
of Shanghai, in the application scenario of high current, it is
difficult to meet the laying space requirements of multiple
traditional cables. Therefore, superconducting cables are used
Fig. 2 Cable structure
J Supercond Nov Magn (2020) 33:1927–1931
for large-capacity transmission. The project will build a new
35-kV three-phase AC superconducting cable between
220 kV substation A and substation B in Xuhui District, cen-
tral Shanghai. The superconducting cable connects the
busbars of these two substations and will replace the existing
four 35-kV conventional cables. The superconducting cable is
designed to have a current of 2200 A and a length of 1.2 km
and is scheduled to be completed and put into operation in
December 2020. The normal running current is about 1300 A.
Under special circumstances, the superconducting cable will
deliver carry the load at the low-voltage side of the main
transformer to reach full load.
The project is under construction by the State Grid
Shanghai Electric Power Company. The whole process pipe
J Supercond Nov Magn (2020) 33:1927–1931
Fig. 3 Terminal thermostat
laying will be adopted in the project. In order to ensure the
smooth laying of the project, special tools for superconducting
cable laying have been developed to solve the problem of
asynchronous cold shrinkage between the cable core and the
insulated tube. The Shanghai Cable Research Institute is re-
sponsible for manufacturing cable bodies, joints, and termina-
tions and testing the performance of superconducting tape.
The Shanghai Electric Power Design Institute is in charge of
the overall design of the project. The China Electric Power
Research Institute carries out research on the protection con-
figuration of superconducting lines. The research results
above will be applied in the project.
3 System Composition
The composition of the entire system is shown in Fig. 1, in-
cluding the superconducting cable body, two intermediate
joints, two cable terminations, and an auxiliary monitoring
and refrigeration system.
The structure of the superconducting cable body is shown
in Fig. 2, which adopts the three-phase package structure [1].
Fro m t he in s id e to th e ou tsi d e ar e copp er co r e,
Fig. 4 Side pressure test results
1929
Fig. 5 The result of critical current test
superconducting tape, insulation layer, superconducting
shield, copper shield, liquid nitrogen, internal and external
heat insulation tube, and outer sheath. The functions of each
layer are as follows: The copper lining core is used as a
support body and carries the fault current when the fault
current occurs. The superconducting tape adopts products
from Shanghai Superconductor and Shangchuang
Superconductor Co., Ltd., which is the carrier for cable trans-
mission current. Cable insulation made of polypropylene
composite fiber paper is used to ensure the withstand voltage
between the conductor and the shield. Superconducting
shield is the carrier for shielding current of the cable.
Copper shield protects the superconducting tape while
shielding the alternating magnetic field generated by the
fault current. Liquid nitrogen is used as refrigerant to provide
the low temperature operation environment required by
superconducting materials. Heat insulation layer blocks the
heat transfer between liquid nitrogen and the external envi-
ronment. Outer sheath improves the mechanical properties of
the cable and hinders the external environment from trans-
ferring heat to the interior of the cable. The whole cable core
and the insulation layer are immersed in liquid nitrogen, and
a support for ensuring displacement is provided between the
inner and outer insulation tubes to ensure that the vacuum
layer is not damaged.
The superconducting cable terminal is a key component for
connecting the normal temperature outlet and the low temper-
ature lead. It withstands the temperature difference from −
196 °C (liquid nitrogen temperature) to 40 °C (maximum
operating temperature of outlet). Therefore, it needs to adopt
special insulation design. The lower part of the terminal is
connected with the superconducting cable core, and the upper
part is connected to the outlet sleeve. The appearance of the
terminal is shown in Fig. 3.
For the design of the refrigeration system, the project
adopts three sets of refrigeration schemes, among which the
main refrigeration scheme uses a reverse-Breton refrigerator,
the standby refrigeration scheme I utilizes a Stirling refrigera-
tor, and the standby refrigeration scheme II applies an evacu-
ation decompression mode.
1930 J Supercond Nov Magn (2020) 33:1927–1931

Table 1 The items of the type test

No. Test item Test equipment Main technical Judgment Referenced Remarks
parameters criterion test method

1 System overall Refrigeration system, temperature sensor Below 77 K / / One week

pre-cooling pre-cool
scheduled
2 No-load partial Partial discharge detector, series resonant AC Test voltage refer to No partial GB/T304 Provide data
discharge test withstand voltage test equipment IEC60502 discharge 8.12
after
bending
3 Dielectric loss test High-voltage bridge, standard capacitor, series Test voltage refer to Record GB/T304 Provide data
resonant AC withstand voltage test equipment IEC60502 measured 8.11
values
4 Load voltage cycle test Series resonant AC withstand voltage test 2 U0, 2000 A, 20 No flashover GB/T304 Provide report
equipment, single-turn cored transformer, times, refer to or 8.8
auxiliary test cable, current transformer, IEC60502 breakdown
three-phase voltage regulator (U0 = 21.5 kV)
5 Lightning impulse Marx generator, single-turn cored transformer, ± 200 kV each for No flashover GB/T304 Provide report,
voltage test auxiliary test cable, current transformer, 10 times, no or 8.13 considering
three-phase voltage regulator current, refer to breakdown load or no-load
IEC60502 condition
6 Power frequency Series resonant AC withstand voltage test 2 U0, 30 min, refer No flashover GB/T304 Provide report,
withstand voltage equipment, single-turn cored transformer, to IEC60502 or 8.8 considering
test after lightning auxiliary test cable, three-phase voltage (U0 = 21.5 kV) breakdown load or no-load
impulse test regulator condition
7 Pressure test Nitrogen bottle, pressure reducing valve, pressure 1.1 times operating No leaks in / Witness test
gauge pressure, 10 min the system

One terminal thermostat is provided with the inlet for liquid
nitrogen, and the other one is provided with the outlet for the
liquid nitrogen outlet. The refrigeration system is connected to
the superconducting cable thermostat via a terminal thermo-
stat. The liquid nitrogen enters from one terminal thermostat,
flows into the cable thermostat, and returns to the refrigeration
system from the other terminal thermostat. The refrigeration
system sends the cooling capacity through the liquid nitrogen
to the superconducting cable thermostat to cool the
superconducting cable.
4 Experiment and Test Progress
In order to verify the performance of the cable system de-
signed in this project, the critical current and pressure tests
were first carried out on the superconducting cable test sam-
ple. A side pressure test was performed, which tested the abil-
ity of the superconducting cable to withstand the side pressure
along the cable direction. Pressure tests were performed on the
sample, and the outer diameter or deformation of the sample
was recorded before and after tests by a displacement sensor.
During the tests, a pressure sensor recorded the pressure value
when pressure was applied. The result of the pressure test is
shown in Fig. 4, where a blue line and a red line represent the
deformation condition of the outer insulating tube and outer
sheath, respectively. According to the experiment results,
when the pressure along the direction of the cable reaches
3 kN/m2, the polyethylene outer sheath has been destroyed,
resulting in an irreversible deformation, and the stainless steel
bellow is basically restored. It can be considered that the side
pressure controlled during cable laying should be less than
3 kN/m2.
The critical current test adopts the four-lead method (sim-
ilar to measuring the DC resistance of a cable). A high cur-
rent Hall sensor and a multimeter are used to test the current
and voltage, respectively. The critical current test result of
the cable is shown in Fig. 5. The test value is 5769 A, indi-
cating that the critical current of the cable is not degraded
after the manufacturing process of the superconducting
cable.
In addition, a test system consisting of a cable body, an
intermediate joint, and a terminal was constructed, and a type
test was carried out to verify the overall design of the system.
The type test items are shown in Table 1. The test items in-
clude overall pre-cooling, partial discharge test, dielectric loss
test, load voltage cycle test, lightning impulse voltage test,
power frequency withstand voltage test after impact, and pres-
sure test. In the load voltage cycle test, a voltage of 43 kV and
a current of 2000 A were applied for a total of 20 cycles. The
lightning impulse voltage is ± 200 kV and is applied 10 times.
The withstand voltage after the impact was 43 kV for 30 min.
The pressure test was performed at the 1.1 times operating
pressure for 10 min.
J Supercond Nov Magn (2020) 33:1927–1931
The type test will be completed in October 2019, and the
long-distance cable product will be carried out in the future. At
the same time, the cable channel construction of the project
will also be carried out.
5 Conclusion
This project in Shanghai will be the second km level commer-
cial superconducting cable project in the world [6–8], and it is
also the only superconducting cable project using pipe laying
for whole process. It will create a blueprint for the application
of superconducting cables in the power grid after being devel-
oped smoothly. In high-density load urban areas, the applica-
tion of superconducting cables for power transmission has a
great practical significance. Compared with traditional cross-
linked cables, it saves underground corridors and increases
capacity of main transformers, and it also has some advan-
tages in economy. Although the cost of superconducting tape
is still higher than that of conventional copper tape, the insu-
lation of cables in liquid nitrogen environment is more reliable
than at room temperature, so the service life of
superconducting cables will be longer than conventional ca-
bles. In a comprehensive view, the construction of the km
level high temperature superconducting cable project has
strong practical significance for the power grid and upstream
enterprises.
Due to the limitation of refrigeration distance, the current
demonstration projects are mostly around 1 km. The refriger-
ation system needs to be expanded with the expansion of the
distance, increasing the cost in both civil engineering and
equipment configuration. Although the transmission capacity
of superconducting cables can replace the conventional high
voltage level cables, it is still unable to achieve the continuous
growth of transmission distance. Taking the 500-kV conven-
tional cable as an example, the distance is about 15 km, which
is difficult to achieve with superconducting cables. Therefore,
in the future commercial operation, the continuous improve-
ment of refrigeration performance is critical, which will open
up new avenues for the application of superconducting cables.
Funding Information The project was funded by the State Grid
Corporation of China Science and Technology Project with grant no.
520940180014.
1931
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