Test results of the SuperRail HTS cable system for the French railway electric grid
Résumé
The SuperRail project, backed by the French government, will be the first installation of a high-temperature superconducting (HTS) cable system on a commercially operated railway electric grid. The project's goal is to develop, manufacture, and install a HTS DC cable system at the Montparnasse railways station in Paris. Due to the restricted space available in the city's saturated underground, the HTS technology provides the only viable solution for increasing the power supply from the railway substation to a group of railway tracks. This will allow for an increase in train traffic while simultaneously reducing CO2 emissions. Two 80 m long 1.5 kV-3.5 kA HTS DC cables made of 2G conductors will be installed in parallel. They are designed to meet stringent load chart requirements and to sustain a 67 kA-200 ms short-circuit current. Prior to the installation at Montparnasse, a complete 35-m HTS cable type test loop was successfully installed and tested at the SNCF Vitry test facility. This system includes two terminations, one splice, and a fully automated cooling system that manages the thermal cycles between room temperature and cryogenic rated conditions.