November 19, 2014
LS Cable & System started the demonstration of power transmission DC cable 10X capacity-the world’s first superconducting DC cable. The size of superconducting cable is only 20 percent i.e. one-fifth the size of copper cable. The installation of an 80kV superconducting DC cable was completed at the company’s Superconducting Power System Center in Jeju Island at the end of October. On November 19, it started a system demonstration that will last for six months.
LS cable & System is touted as the only company in the world with both AC and DC superconducting technologies. At present, other than LS Cable & System, only four companies in the world possess superconducting cable technologies, including Nexans of France and Sumitomo of Japan. The demo turned out to be a milestone for Korea because, despite starting development of superconducting cable technology much later than the U.S. and Germany, the country has now become an industry leader after about ten years of technology development.
Despite being only 20 percent the size of a copper cable, superconducting cable’s transmission volume is larger by five times for AC and as much as ten times for DC transmission. The cable is developed on the principles of ‘superconductivity’ whereby electric resistance disappears at minus 196 degree Celsius; superconducting cable involves almost no electricity loss during transmission.
Superconducting cable is highly usable in congested urban areas where power demand is on the rise even though space underground for cables is already saturated with cable tunnels and conduits. Thus, a drastic wattage increase can be achieved by simply replacing existing cables with superconducting cables while continuing to use the existing facilities. In addition, when it becomes necessary to build a new cable tunnel, the cross-section of the tunnel can be reduced by more than 60 percent.
