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C.6.4

8th International Conference on Insulated Power Cables

C.6.4

HVDC Power Cables: potential of superconducting and resistive designs

Rainer SOIKA (1), Pierre Mirebeau (2), Nicolas LALLOUET (2), Erik MARZAHN (1), Frank SCHMIDT (1),
Mark STEMMLE (1), Beate WEST (1)
1 - Nexans Deutschland GmbH, Hannover, Germany, [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
2 Nexans France, Calais, France, [email protected], [email protected]

ABSTRACT
The goal to reduce the carbon footprint of the human
activity has resulted to a larger use of electric power as
compared to fossil fuel power.

Superconducting HVDC cables are currently receiving

significant attention due to their potential for transmitting
large amounts of power. We will focus specifically on their
last developments.

There are new generators types and new power

generation facility locations.

CAPABILITIES OF RESISTIVE HVDC

POWER CALE SYSTEMS

On the other hand, in crowded areas, a larger amount of

electric power has to be provided.

LAPPED CABLES :

New types of high power transmission cables that are

fitted to match these different needs are being designed.
The authors will address the case of High Voltage Direct
Current cables:

Choice of conductor : resistive, superconductive

Choice of insulation system, lapped, extruded

different types of extruded insulation systems will
be addressed,

Challenges regarding the cable system design,

and specially accessories

Prototypes
evaluation
and
performance
assessment.
A special focus will be given to superconductive HVDC
transmission.

The traditional HVDC MI and oil filled cables with a

lapped/impregnated dielectric are applicable to both LCC
and VSC converters. Polarity reversals do not represent
any problem.

KEYWORDS
HVDC, Superconducting cables

INTRODUCTION
Distributed generation (wind mills, solar cells, offshore
generators) implies an in depth modification of the
transmission network to bring the electric power from the
production sites which are generally remote from the
consumption areas.

Fig 1: Oil Filled Cable of the Gibraltar strait

Interconnection, management of reactive power has given

to HVDC transmission a revival.
Now there are many designs of HVDC generators:

line commutated converters,

voltage source converters,

multilevel voltage source converters,

They can be associated with a large choice of
transmission cables:
Resistive conductor:
lapped oil filled
lapped mass impregnated
extruded
Superconductive conductor:

lapped liquid nitrogen filled.

This gives a wide range of technical solutions to the
transmission engineer.

Fig 2: Mass Impregnated Cable of the Norned connection

In the present situation these cables can transmit 900MW
under 550kV, i.e. 1800MW for a bipole + and - 550kV.

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8th International Conference on Insulated Power Cables

C.6.4

The oil filled cables are limited to a length of 80km to

avoid any cavitation due to the oil pressure drop during
load cycles. They can be used in HVAC as well as in
HVDC conditions.
The circuit length of Mass Impregnated cables is
unlimited. Transportation limits the unit length (recently
237km of 250kV HVDC cables were transported in one
single run for the Majorca-Valencia interconnection), the
longest HVDC MI cable is the NorNed : 580km.
The manufacturing process of the lapped cable can be
stopped at any time to change the spool of a paper layer,
without any incidence on the final product.
The delivery length normally consists of several
manufacturing lengths joined together by factory joints.
The HVDC test at 1,8 Uo during 15 min. (Factory
Acceptance Test) is commonly accepted as ensuring the
integrity of both cable and factory joints [1].
This makes the Mass Impregnated cables especially
competitive for long delivery length submarine works. On
the other hand site joints are time consuming and give MI
cables a penalty for underground works.

In the future,
The traditional MI cable should keep a strong position for
long length bulk submarine power transmission in the next
10 to 15 years. By introducing PPLP (polypropylene
lapped paper) instead of paper the capacity can be
increased to 1250/1500MW.
Fig 4: 320kV HVDC extruded cable system

Next 5 years HVDC MI (lapped PPLP) 600kV/1200MW

Next 10 to 15
750kV/1500MW

years

HVDC

MI

(lapped

PPLP)
For underground transmission projects there is of course
a preference for HVDC extruded cable systems due to the
efficiency of jointing and reduced weight compared with
the MI cable. Present capacity of this cable type is 500
MW at 320 kV.
Regarding submarine links, contrary to MI cables, the
manufacturing length is restricted to some 10km
depending on the voltage level, which increases the
number of factory joints.
There is presently no consensus in the scientific
community on the test protocol for the acceptance of a
factory joint in a manufactured length. This is more and
more critical when the delivery length gets longer.

Fig 3: Present application of MI and oil filled cables with a

lapped/impregnated dielectric (bipole) [2]

EXTRUDED CABLES
The HVDC cable with extruded dielectric has been
developed recently for the VSC converter. However, this
cable type also can be applicable for the LCC converter
system with polarity reversals, depending on the system
design [3].

Therefore, the need for long land cable sections in case of

offshore windmill projects should lead to a preference for
HVDC extruded cables in this market segment (export
cable + land cable), but the submarine bulk power
transmission over long distances should remain with
lapped technology.

In the future,
In the next 5 years HVDC extruded dielectric cable
systems should reach 1000MW at 600kV.
Then, depending on the technological push from the
market in 10 to 15 years to come HVDC extruded
dielectric could transport 1500MW at 750kV
.

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8th International Conference on Insulated Power Cables

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Figure 6 shows the two Superconducting HVDC cores,

each housed in a separate cable cryostat. This
configuration is especially suited for higher voltage levels.
For a cable system in this configuration, the spacing
between the two poles is only governed by the forces the
poles exert on each other the thermal independence of
a superconducting cable from its surroundings makes
close spacing possible. The liquid nitrogen cooling loop
may either be nitrogen flowing away from the cooling
station in one pole and returning in the other pole; or
nitrogen flowing in the central channel and returning in the
gap between cable core and cryostat.

Fig 5: Present application of MI, oil filled and extruded

cables (bipole)

SUPERCONDUCTING HVDC POWER CABLE

SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS
Just
like
resistive
HVDC
cable
systems,
a
superconducting HVDC cable system consists of a
(superconducting) cable connected to terminations.
Additionally, a liquid nitrogen cooling system provides the
cable cooling and is commonly located close to
terminations, and, for very long lengths, cable joints. The
superconducting power cable itself consists of a cable
core that is housed inside a cable cryostat. Liquid nitrogen
circulates inside the cable cryostat, providing cooling for
the cable, as it needs to be operated at cryogenic
temperatures (commonly between 65 and 72 K (- 208 to
201 C). Superconducting power cables commonly employ
a lapped paper insulation made of PPLP (Polypropylene
Laminated Paper). Suitable superconductors for HVDC
power cables are Bismuth-Strontium-Calcium-CopperOxide (BSCCO) and Yttrium-Barium-Copper-Oxide
(YBCO). These two High-Temperature-Superconductors
(HTS) are sometimes also referred to as first generation
(1G) and second generation (2G) conductors. Owing to
the active cooling via liquid nitrogen, the cable system is
thermally independent from its surroundings, the cryostat
losses (which are on the order of 1 W/m) are the only
thermal interaction between the cable and its
surroundings

Fig 7: Superconducting cable - concentric design

Figure 7 shows a concentric design in which the two
conductors are wound around a common core and
separated by the insulation. This design requires two
lapped paper insulation systems with one conductor
between the two insulation systems and one below. This
implies that the insulation between the two poles is
submitted to a voltage of 2V0, so that this cable design is
more suitable for lower voltage ranges. Here, the central
channel and the gap between cable core and cryostat are
the orifices which provide the liquid nitrogen cooling
channel.
The HVDC termination concept is shown in Figure 8.

CABLE SYSTEM DESIGN

For the common bipolar design, two obvious design
options are shown in Figure 6 and 7.

Fig 6: Superconducting cable - single core design

Fig 8: Termination for DC superconducting cable

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8th International Conference on Insulated Power Cables

Its vertical configuration and its dimensions are similar to

classical high voltage termination and could so be easily
implemented by utilities. The cable cryostat envelops ()
are directly connected to the termination cryostat ()
which includes inlet and outlet for the liquid nitrogen flow.
Upper part of the termination () is dedicated to the
electrical field and thermal gradient management. Figure
9 shows such expected HVDC termination next to a usual
400 kV AC.
Such termination has been tested for applications up to a
voltage class of 200 kV DC according Electra
recommendation 189 (april 2000). Superposed lightening
impulse shots up to 600 kV were successfully applied on
this prototype submitted to 200 kV DC.
HVDC joints are similar to HVAC ones. They do not affect
the superconductivity of the cable even locally

C.6.4

cables over the last 15 years has also triggered significant

development of liquid nitrogen cooling systems for the
cables. These cooling systems are obviously also suited
for superconducting DC applications. One example of the
progress of the liquid nitrogen cooling systems is a TurboBrayton refrigerator developed within the framework of the
LIPA project [4]. The efficiency of this Turbo-Brayton
refrigerator is 28 % of Carnot efficiency, which means that
at temperatures of 65 K on the cold end and 293 K on the
warm end, ~ 12.5 W of power at ambient temperature is
required to compensate a loss of 1 W at 70 K. For thermal
losses of 1.3 W/m, as they occur for example in the cable
cryostats of the LIPA system, the corresponding power
requirement at ambient temperature is therefore 16.3 W.
Further improvement of cable cryostats may lead to
thermal losses being as low as 0.3 W/m per cable
cryostat. For thermal losses of 0.3 W/m, the cooling power
requirement at ambient temperature is only ~ 3.8 W/m.

Accessories Losses
CABLE SYSTEM LOSSES
Superconductors exhibit no dc resistance when operated
below their (temperature-dependent) critical current Ic,
The loss components of a dc superconducting cable
system are then the ohmic losses in normal-conducting
parts (mainly in the terminations, possibly in the joints) as
well as the cooling losses in the termination and the cable
cryostat. As mentioned below, the cable system losses
(consisting of cable losses and termination losses)
decrease (on a per unit basis) with increasing cable
system length; the ultimate lower limit for the losses being
the cryostat loss per unit length.

Termination losses include a pure thermal part which is

not related to the current of the DC cable system, but only
to the termination cryostat design and to the thermal
gradient management between ambient and cryogenic
temperatures. This part could be expected in the 100-150
W range for a 200 kV DC termination. Additional losses
due to grid connection and dependent on current level are
also to be considered in the range of 40-60 W per kA.
Joint losses will be mainly thermal losses due the joint
cryostat but could remain in the range of a few tens of
watts. Losses related to the current will remain low for the
joint with only a few watts per kA.

Overall Losses
Based on the above discussion, the overall system losses
for a long superconducting system are approaching the
cable cryostat losses, with the (current-dependent) loss
contribution of the termination cryostat decreasing as
cable
system
length
increases.
Consequently,
Superconducting HVDC systems show their highest
efficiency in long systems

CABLE SYSTEM LENGTH

The cable system length is in principle infinite. However,
cooling stations need to be provided at certain intervals,
depending on the cable configuration. Ideally, cooling
stations are provided where a cable joint is located
anyway, as a cable joint makes for easier access to the
cable cryostat. It will be seen that in land installations, the
distance between cooling stations is commonly a multiple
of the distance between joints, as the distance between
joints in land installations is commonly limited to less than
1000 m due to the cable drum size. In the following
paragraph we give a conservative estimate for the
distance between cooling stations.

Fig.9: Superconducting 200kV HVDC termination (left) as

compared to 400kV HVAC termination (right)

Cable Losses
Superconducting power cables are commonly cooled by
sub-cooled liquid nitrogen in the temperature range of 6572K. The development of superconducting AC power

The achievable distance between cooling stations strongly

increase with an increasing cooling channel gap size. The
cooling channel gap size is the distance between the
cable core and the cryostat. Assuming an operating
temperature range between 65 and 72K and a pressure
drop of 5bar along the two cable phases, Fig. 0 shows the
achievable distance between two cooling stations as a
function of the cooling channel gap size, for a temperature
increase of 7K and a pressure drop of 5bar for the two

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8th International Conference on Insulated Power Cables

phase system with separate supply and return

cryostats. In the calculations the outer cable core
diameter is 72.7 mm and the cryostat losses are 1.3W/m.
It is seen from Figure 10 that distances between cooling
stations approach 10 km, if one allows a gap of > 55 mm.
The calculations are based on a pressure drop of 5 bars
and a temperature rise of 7 K over the cooling circuit,
which comprises a length twice greater than the one
shown in the figure, as both incoming and return flows
have to be considered.

C.6.4

Transmitted power (MW)

5000

DC : bipole +/-

4000
3000

10
9

2000

Cable Length [km]

8
7
6

1000

5
4
3
2
1
0
10,0

15,0

20,0

25,0

30,0

35,0

40,0

45,0

50,0

55,0

60,0

100 200

Cooling Channel Gap Size [mm]

Fig. 10: Distance between cooling stations as a function of

the cooling channel gap size
For the future, a new cooling design concept has been
proposed, based on spray technology [8]. This could
extend the distance between cooling stations to 100km
and so eliminate a weak point of the superconductive
cable systems.

CONCLUSION
The description of the different cable designs for HVDC
transmission shows that there are specificities that give
them presently a preferred use in the following typical
conditions:

lapped technology for submarine long routes

extruded technology for underground routes
superconductive technology for large power
transmission.

The actual conditions have to be analysed on a case by

case basis.
In the future, the applicability of extruded and
superconductive technologies will extend and the choice
will be driven by the total cost of ownership including
investment, operation, maintenance and dismantling.

300 400 500

Voltage (kV)

Fig. 11: Present maximum transmitted power vs voltage

for resistive and superconducting cables.

REFERENCES
[1] ELECTRA 189 - Recommendations for tests of power
transmission DC cables for a rated voltage up to 800
kV (Electra 72, 1980 - revision)
[2] P. Mirebeau, CIGRE 2010 spontaneous contribution
PS2Q4
[3] H. Tanaka, "Development of DC XLPE cable" IEEE
ICC meeting sub C session
[4] J.F. Maguire, F. Schmidt, A. Ravex, Demonstration of
a Pre-Commercial Long-Length HTS Cable System
Operating in the Power Transmission Network,
presented at the DOE Peer Review Update, June 29July 1, 2010, Alexandria, VA
[8] S.P. Ashworth and D.W. Reagor Superconductivity 3
A novel cooling scheme for superconducting power
cables Cryogenics, April 2011 Volume 51, Issue 4,
Pages 161-167

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