With power demands rising across the country every year, a researcher has developed a new system to safeguard power grids from short-circuits and prevent accidents.

Prof. Satyajit Banerjee from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur along with his team has developed a prototype that could either automatically divert the current into a parallel shunt (external resistance to bypass maximum current) or limit a current surge by developing high resistance in the current path.

Short-circuits in power distribution networks like power grids could result in huge current surges leading to major damage and economic losses.

The Smart Superconducting Fault Current Limiter (SCFLsm) developed by Prof. Satyajit Banerjee and his team work on a similar principle as superconductors offer zero resistance to currents up to a threshold current value. At currents beyond the critical current, the resistance of the superconductor becomes high. Thus, the SCFL’s operating principle is that when the fault current exceeds the critical current of the superconductor, its resistance becomes high. This reduces the fault current.

In the indigenously developed SCFLsm, the circuit is connected in parallel to a low resistance shunt through a switch. The array of hall sensors allows continuous monitoring of current flowing through different regions of the superconductor used in the SCFLsm. Precise and continuous motoring of the current through the fault limiting superconducting element can trigger automatic action, like diverting the current into a parallel shunt and protecting the grid.

Another advantage is that the SCFLsm allows for the continuous monitoring and mapping of the current distribution across the superconductor used inside it. This enables the direct visualization of any instability setting in the SCFLsm during its operation.

The Ministry of Science & Technology in a release said that Prof. Banerjee further plans to develop more efficient, large current automatic compact switches to divert current between superconductors to shunt. This will help diversion of the faulty as soon as it is detected by the smart sensors built into his SCFCLsm prototype.

“He also plans to develop predictive (intelligence) capability in his smart SCFL to automatically detect when one is nearing the threshold of formation of instability in the superconducting element or even to detect when the system is approaching the stage of fault occurrence,” the Ministry said.

The new system could help India in safeguarding its grids, which would be part of the one sun, one world, one grid plans announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the recently held COP-26 summit in Glasgow.