5402306 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON APPLIED SUPERCONDUCTIVITY, VOL. 23, NO.

3, JUNE 2013

Update of YOKOHAMA HTS Cable Project

Hiroyasu Yumura, Yuichi Ashibe, Masayoshi Ohya, Hideki Itoh, Michihiko Watanabe, Takato Masuda,
Hiroshi Ichikawa, Tomoo Mimura, Shoichi Honjo, Tsukushi Hara, Ryusuke Ohno,
Masahiro Shimoda, Naoko Nakamura, Toshihiro Komagome, and Hiroharu Yaguchi

(Invited Paper)

Abstract—The high-temperature superconducting (HTS) cable TABLE I

demonstration project supported by Ministry of Economy, Trade S PECIFICATIONS OF D EMONSTRATION S ITE
and Industry and New Energy and Industrial Technology Develop-
ment Organization has started in Japan. The target of this project
is to operate a 66 kV, 200 MVA HTS cable in the live network
of Tokyo Electric Power Company in order to demonstrate its
reliability and stable operation. The design of the HTS cable with
DI-BSCCO has been completed as well as those of a termina-
tion and a joint. A 30-m HTS cable system with terminations, a
splice, and a cooling system was installed in the SEI facility and existing conventional facilities and operates the HTS cable sys-
confirmed the cable has good performances as design. The HTS
tem. SEI designs and manufactures the HTS cable, terminations
cable, splice box, and termination vessels have been manufactured
with the same design of a 30-m cable system. By now, the HTS and a joint. Mayekawa Mfg. Co. Ltd. provides a cooling system.
cables have been installed into the conduit at the Asahi substation
of Tokyo Electric Power Company. The constructions of splice and
terminations have been completed. The HTS cable system at Asahi II. O UTLINE OF YOKOHAMA P ROJECT
substation was cooled down in this spring. This paper describes the
design and completion test results of the HTS cable system. The HTS cable in this project is 66 kV class and the 3-in One
HTS cable. A 66 kV line is major transmission line in TEPCO’s
Index Terms—High-temperature superconductors, power cable
installation, power cable joint, superconducting power cables. grid.
The Asahi substation (Yokohama, Kanagawa) was chosen
I. I NTRODUCTION as the demonstration site in consideration of space, current
capacity and other factors. The Asahi substation is an outdoor
T HE YOKOHAMA Project supported by Ministry of Econ-
omy, Trade and Industry (METI) and New Energy and
Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) has
type and has three set of 200 MVA, 154/66 kV set down
transformers which connect 154 kV bus lines and 66 k kV
started in Japan. Target of this project is to operate a 66 kV, bus lines. The specification of the Asahi substation is shown
200 MVA HTS cable in the live grid in order to demonstrate its in Table I. The layout of the HTS cable system at the Asahi
reliability and stable operation [1], [2]. substation is shown in Fig. 1. Two HTS cables are connected to
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) provides the real each other with a cable-to-cable joint. Total HTS cable length
grid, studies the impact of connecting the HTS cable to the is about 250 meters. The HTS cable is connected between the
low voltage side of the transformer and the 66 kV bus lines,
Manuscript received October 8, 2012; accepted February 3, 2013. Date of
with circuit breakers and line switches on both sides of the HTS
publication February 8, 2013; date of current version March 10, 2013. This cable. Another line switch is added in parallel to the HTS cable
work was supported in part by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and to form a by-pass circuit for emergency use.
Industry (METI) and the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development
Organization (NEDO).
Fig. 2 shows the schedule of this project. During the first
H. Yumura, Y. Ashibe, M. Ohya, H. Itoh, M. Watanabe, and T. Masuda two years, the components of HTS cable system were studied
are with Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd., Osaka 554-0024 Japan (e-mail: and confirmed their performances. The cable provides large
yumura-hiroyasu@sei.co.jp; ashibe@sei.co.jp; ohya-masayoshi@sei.co.jp;
itou-hideki@sei.co.jp; m-watanabe@sei.co.jp; masuda-takato@sei.co.jp).
current capacity with low AC loss (target: 1 W/m/phase at 2 kA,
H. Ichikawa, T. Mimura, and S. Honjo are with Tokyo Electric Power 50 Hz), and survives at fault currents (max. 31.5 kA, 2 sec). In
Company, Yokohama 230-8510, Japan (e-mail: Ichikawa.Hiro@tepco.co.jp; 2009, the pre-system with a 30-meter cable was constructed in
mimura.tomoo@tepco.co.jp; honjo.shoichi@tepco.co.jp).
T. Hara is with TEPCO Memorial Foundation, Tokyo 100-0006, Japan the SEI factory to verify the performance of the HTS cable and
(e-mail: hara.tsukushi@tmf.tgn.ne.jp). its accessories. Then the actual HTS cable was manufactured
R. Ohno, M. Shimoda, N. Nakamura, T. Komagome, and H. Yaguchi in 2010 and constructed and operated at the site in 2011 and
are with Mayekawa Manufacturing Company, Ltd, Moriya 302-0118, Japan
(e-mail: ryusuke-ono@mayekawa.co.jp; masahiro-shimoda@mayekawa.co.jp; 2012. Its operation period in the live grid is scheduled for one
naoko-nakamura@mayekawa.co.jp; toshihiro-komagome@mayekawa.co.jp; year. The cooling system was also tested in order to confirm
hiroharu-yaguchi@mayekawa.co.jp). its characteristics in 2010. The cable system has been installed
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. and now verified its performance. The HTS system will be
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TASC.2013.2245931 connected with the live grid in autumn, 2012.
1051-8223/$31.00 © 2013 IEEE
YUMURA et al.: UPDATE OF YOKOHAMA HTS CABLE PROJECT
Fig. 1. Layout of the demonstration cable system.
Fig. 2. Schedule of the Yokohama Project.
Fig. 3. Structure of the Three-in-One HTS cable.
III. C ABLE D ESIGN
The structure of the 3-in-One HTS cable is shown in Fig. 3.
The three cores are housed in one thermal insulation pipe (cable
cryostat), offering the advantages of compact installation space
and reduced heat invasion compared with three single-core HTS
cables with a separate cryostat. A cable core consists of a
former made of stranded copper wires and an HTS conducting
layer, an insulation layer, an HTS shielding layer, and a copper
shielding layer, all of which are coaxially wound around the
former.
The performance requirements for Asahi cable are shown
in Table II. The reduction of AC loss is the most challenging
development. To reduce the AC loss, low-loss type Bi-2223
wires (Type ACT) are used in the 3rd and 4th conducting
layers. As shown in Fig. 4, Type ACT wires contain twisted
superconducting filaments, thus reducing AC loss from parallel
magnetic field to one third of that of standard wires (Type HT),
which were used in the 1st and 2nd conducting layers and
shielding layers [3]. The result of AC loss measurement for
the developed cable core is shown in Fig. 5. The AC loss was
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TABLE II
P ERFORMANCE R EQUIREMENTS FOR ASAHI HTS C ABLE
Fig. 4. Cross-sectional view of DI-BSCCO (TypeHT and TypeACT).
Fig. 5. Results of ac loss measurement.
0.8 W/m/phase at AC 2 kA, thereby it was confirmed that the
AC loss characteristics of developed cable core met the required
specification of less than 1 W/m/phase.
To survive at a maximum fault current of 31.5 kA for
2 sec and manage a maximum through fault current of 10 kA for
2 sec, a simulation study of the temperature rise at fault current
was performed for various cross-sections of the copper pro-
tective layers. Based on the simulation results, cross-sectional
areas of a copper stranded former and a copper shielding layer
were selected as 140 mm2 and 80 mm2 , respectively. The
fault current test showed that the temperature rise was within
the expected range and corresponded well with the simulation
results (see Fig. 6). Furthermore, no damage in the critical
current characteristics was observed in the cable core. It was
concluded that the cable core had the required properties against
a fault current condition.
The cable layout of Asahi substation consists of the many
bending portions. So, at the cable installation, the cable pulling
tension would be large. Because the cable cryostat doesn’t
have strong mechanical properties, a tension member made
of stainless steel tapes was attached on the outside of cable
cryostat to share the pulling tension. The tension member is
designed to hold the pulling tension of 2 tons.
5402306 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON APPLIED SUPERCONDUCTIVITY, VOL. 23, NO. 3, JUNE 2013

Fig. 6. Results of fault current test.

TABLE III
S PECIFICATION OF ASAHI HTS C ABLE Fig. 7. 30-m HTS cable system.

TABLE IV
R ESULTS OF P RE -P ERFORMANCE T EST

Based on mainly the current capacity, low AC loss charac-

teristics and to manage the fault currents and cable pulling, the
Asahi cable design was concluded. The specification of Asahi
cable is shown in Table III.

IV. P RE -P ERFORMANCE T EST W ITH A 30-M ETER C ABLE

In order to verify the validity of the design of cable, joint
and termination, a 30-meter HTS cable system was constructed TABLE V
S HIPPING T EST R ESULTS FOR ASAHI C ABLE (S AMPLE T ESTS )
in SEI facility. The cable system consisted of approximately
30-meter long cable with a 90 degree bend 5 m in radius,
terminations at both ends and a cable-to-cable joint in-between.
Fig. 7 shows the completed verification system. The cable
system was operated by combining it with a cooling system to
circulate liquid nitrogen. The cooling system mainly consisted
of two 1 kW-class refrigerators, an LN2 pump, and a reservoir
tank. The cable system was cooled and subjected to various
tests, including electrical tests, mechanical tests, and heat loss
measurements. The results of the pre-performance test are
summarized in Table IV [4].

V. C ABLE M ANUFACTURE AND S HIPPING T ESTS

After pre-performance tests with a 30-meter cable system
were completed successfully, the Asahi cable was manufac- VI. I NSTALLATION OF HTS C ABLE
tured and shipping tests were conducted. The shipping test D EMONSTRATION S YSTEM
results are summarized in Table V. These tests confirmed that
A. HTS Cable Installation
the cables had good properties as designed. After the success
of the shipping tests, the cables were shipped to the Asahi The route profile for the HTS cable installation is shown in
substation. Fig. 1. It has a 180 degree bend with a radius of 5 meters.
YUMURA et al.: UPDATE OF YOKOHAMA HTS CABLE PROJECT
Fig. 8. Installation of the Asahi cables.
Fig. 9. Cable-to-cable joint after assembling.
The method applied to install the HTS cable was the same as
commonly used one for installing conventional underground
cables. The cable drum was placed on a drum roller and the
cable was pulled by a winch into the conduit. Fig. 8 shows a
setup of cable installation. The HTS cable was installed into the
conduit smoothly and the maximum tension was approximately
1.3 tons, which was less than designed value of 2 tons for the
cable pulling tension with tension member.
B. Assembling HTS Joint and Terminations
After cable installation, a cable-to-cable joint and termina-
tions were assembled. The assembled joint and terminations are
shown Figs. 9 and 10, respectively.
C. Installation of Cooling System
The liquid nitrogen enters the cable through one termination
and gets out through the other one, returning back to the
cooling system. The cooling system mainly consists of six
refrigerators, two LN2 circulation pumps, and a reservoir tank.
Each stirling refrigerator has cooling power of 1 kW@ 77 K or
0.8 kW@ 67 K. These refrigerators are paired and connected
in parallel as shown in Fig. 11. Controlling refrigerators by
every line independently makes system redundant. The cable
inlet temperature is regulated at 69 K+/-1 K by controlling
the number of refrigerators in operation. The liquid nitrogen
volume of the system is around 10000 litters and reservoir
tank absorbs its volume change by temperature fluctuation.
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Fig. 10. Terminations after assembling.
Fig. 11. Schematic view of cooling system.
In addition, the pressure in the reservoir is maintained above
0.2 MPaG to prevent liquid nitrogen from vaporization that may
degrade the HTS cable dielectric properties. Two circulation
pumps are also set in parallel and run parallel. These pumps
are designed to compensate for the pressure loss of the system,
maintaining the pressure at 0.15 MPa@40 L/min. The flow rate
is maintained at 40 L/min by controlling the frequency of the
circulation pumps.
For the ease of maintenance or repair, the refrigerators and
pumps are designed to be removed from the cooling system
without shutting down the system operation.
VII. C ONFIRMATION T ESTS FOR E NERGIZATION
TO THE GRID
After installation of cable system and cooling system were
completed, the confirmation tests were conducted. The test
results of the cable system are summarized in Table VI.
A. Initial Cooling
Initial cooling for the HTS cable system was conducted by
controlling the temperature in the lengthwise direction of the
cable. The cable was cooled down gradually for the entire
length using nitrogen gases at a temperature of −100 degrees
Celsius first and then −150 degrees Celsius. After that, liquid
nitrogen was injected into the cable. The entire length of the
cable was cooled to the liquid nitrogen temperature in 3 days
(Fig. 12).
5402306 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON APPLIED SUPERCONDUCTIVITY, VOL. 23, NO. 3, JUNE 2013
TABLE VI
C ONFIRMATION T EST R ESULTS FOR ASAHI C ABLE S YSTEM
Fig. 12. Temperature profile in initial cooling process.
Because the both terminations were fixed on the earth, some
tension was produced by thermal contraction of the cable from
the room temperature to liquid nitrogen temperature. Measured
maximum tension was a total of 3–4 tons. This value is almost
same as the tension of 3.5 ton produced by thermal contraction
of 3 cores and cable cryostat cooling-down from room temper-
ature to 77 K.
B. Critical Current Measurement
The critical current (Ic) was measured for each phase con-
ductor at an average cable temperature of 77.3 K. The circuit of
Ic measurement is shown in Fig. 13. It indicates that the current
is applied to W-phase conductor and R-phase conductor. The
shielding current is induced by increasing conductor current.
However, the shielding current is induced much less than
magnitude of the conductor current because of slow current
changing. The magnetic field caused by, for example, W-phase
conductor current was applied to another conductor, R-phase
conductor to make Ic of R-phase conductor lower. In order to
evaluate correct Ic value, the shielding current was measured by
Logousky coils and the leakage magnetic field was calculated.
The results of Ic measurement are shown in Fig. 14. The Ic
are 6.4 kA (defined by 1 μV/cm) and n-value were about 14
for each of all three phases. This Ic closely matches the value
estimated from the sample test result of 7.1 kA in consideration
of the effect of leakage magnetic field [5]. These results show
that there are no defects and no deterioration in the supercon-
ducting conductor throughout the processes of manufacture,
transportation, installation and cooling of the long HTS cable.
Fig. 13. Circuit of the critical current measurement.
Fig. 14. Results of the critical current measurement.
C. Heat Loss Measurement
The heat invasion into the HTS cable system in no-load
condition was measured. The heat loss of cable and both
terminations are 1.3 kW and 1.1 kW at 69 K, respectively. The
cable layout at the Asahi substation consists of the excessive
bending such as 180 degree bend with a radius of 5 meters and
many bending portions. At these bending portions, the lateral
pressure by the cable tension caused by thermal contraction was
applied to the cable to increase its heat invasion in several hold
compared to that in straight portion. The layout of the actual
grid doesn’t consist of such excessive bending and ratio of the
bending portions is small. So, the heat loss of cable cryostat will
not be affected by lateral pressure.
D. DC Withstand Voltage Test
A DC withstand voltage test was conducted based on the
Japanese electrical equipment standard. A DC voltage of
151.8 kV was applied for a period of 10 minutes for each phase,
successfully.
VIII. C ONCLUSION
The Yokohama Project is the first in-grid HTS cable
demonstration in Japan. The cables have been manufactured
and have passed the shipping tests. The installation and the
construction of cable system have been completed success-
fully. And the confirmation tests before grid operation were
YUMURA et al.: UPDATE OF YOKOHAMA HTS CABLE PROJECT
conducted successfully. The monitoring system and alarm sys-
tem are now under installations. The in-grid demonstration will
start in autumn of 2012.
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