A study conducted by German consultant Consentec for currENT, the innovative grid technology association, concludes that superconducting transmission cables can reduce the volume of redispatch on the transmission network by 60%, while also reducing costs by roughly 60%.
Christoph Maurer, Managing Director of Consentec, said:
“An additional HVDC connection with Superconductor technology could reduce the redispatch costs by roughly 60%. But the key result is that combining the three innovative grid technologies investigated in the study, results in volume and costs savings of roughly 90% compared to the reference case, proving the complementarity of approaches.”
A superconducting cable system was modelled against a realisation of the 700km HVDC Suedlink project planned in Germany. Superconducting cables have zero electrical losses and extremely high power density. Due to these features, Superconducting cables would reduce power losses over long distances and also reduce land use conflicts because of smaller rights-of-way, land use and the ability to use the soil above the cable trenches.
The Study states:
“According to currENT’s data, necessary investment costs would be about EUR 1.4 billion lower than those of a comparable conventional HVDC system. Accordingly, a superconducting cable system with a total capacity of 2 x 4.5 GW could be installed without additional costs compared to a conventional [2 x 2 GW] HVDC system. With this configuration, we obtained a reduction of 50% in the volume of redispatch and costs savings of roughly 60%. The RES curtailment shrinks to 1.6 TWh [from 3.4 TWh].”
currENT, of which SuperNode is a founding member, commissioned Consentec to examine the effects a number of innovative grid technologies could have on European transmission systems. The technologies consist of Dynamic Line Rating, modular power flow control and superconducting cable technology. 2030 was used as the target year.
SuperNode CEO John Fitzgerald responded to the study:
“Superconducting cables have zero electrical losses. They require significantly less infrastructure and materials than conventional cables and are more environmentally friendly and importantly they are scalable. We at SuperNode know superconducting technology can revolutionise the transmission industry and we are delighted that the currENT Consentec study supports that view.”
The full study can be found here.