Distributed SMES: A New Technology Supporting Active Grid Management

摘要

A hot summer of 2000 brought renewed scrutiny to power infrastructure problems on both coasts of North America. Meanwhile, in the continent's heartland, two utilities addressed reliability issues by deploying a new type of grid stabilization technology known as D-SMES, or distributed superconducting magnetic energy storage. These deployments by Wisconsin Public Service Co. (Green Bay, WI) and Alliant Energy (Milwaukee, WI) are of historic interest as they mark the first time worldwide that superconductor-based technology has been incorporated as an integral part of a live utility system. They also point the way to a new philosophy of active management of the power grid. In many parts of the world, grid expansion is becoming progressively more difficult. This trend has led to growing interest in new materials and technologies that enable utilities to extract higher performance and revenues from their existing transmission infrastructure.