High temperature superconducting cable is a kind of power facility that adopts unimpeded superconducting material that can transmit high current density as the conductor and can transmit large current. It has the advantages of small volume, light weight, low loss and large transmission capacity, and can realize low loss, high efficiency and large capacity transmission. HTS cables will first be used for short distance power transmission (e.g., generator to transformer, substation to substation, underground substation to urban grid port) and short distance power transmission of large current, such as electroplate plant, power plant and substation, as well as large or super-large city power transmission.
The transmission loss of HTS cables is only 0.5% of the transmission power, much lower than the 5-8% loss of conventional cables. Under the same weight and size, compared with the conventional power cable, the capacity of HTS cable can be increased by 3-5 times and the loss reduced by 60%, which can obviously save the occupied area and space and precious land resources. Retrofitting existing underground cable systems with HTS cables would not only increase transmission capacity by more than three times, but also reduce total costs by 20%. The use of HTS cable can also change the traditional transmission mode, using low voltage and high current to transmit electric energy. Therefore, HTS cable can greatly reduce the loss of power system, improve the total efficiency of power system, and have considerable economic benefits.
The global market for superconducting applications is forecast to reach $244 billion (1516.4 billion yuan) by 2020, with HTS cables accounting for about 5 percent of the total. The world’s existing underground cables with a total length of about 130,000 kilometers will probably be replaced by HTS power cables. Therefore, the market prospect of HTS cable is very broad.