Ken Silverstein EnergyBiz Insider Editor-in-Chief

Last week, The Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) held a groundbreaking ceremony to announce that it will begin by year-end constructing the world's largest superconductor electric transmission cable system. The line should be operational by March 2007. In short, superconductor wire can carry three to five times more power than traditional copper wire. The benefit of that is less voltage is needed to move the same amount of power. And, during periods of peak demand and especially during major heat waves, the system is far more dependable.

"It would take 100 copper wires to carry the same electricity," says Greg Yurek, CEO of American Superconductor, the prime contractor for the system. "Superconductor cable can also introduce controllability in the transmission and distribution system. This brings a whole new way of increasing security of the grid."

The U.S. Department of Energy will allocate $15 million of the $30 million cost of the LIPA project. It will be a 138 kilovolt cable system that is nearly a half mile in length. It will be the first so-called high temperature superconductor cable at a transmission site. Other such wires have been tested at distribution sites, which are characterized as lines that are 60 kilovolts or less.

Today, there are 10 superconductor demonstrations around the world and in such places as China, Korea, Japan and Mexico. There are three such projects in the United States, which have government support. The LIPA deal is being applied to a transmission line. The other two demonstration projects are suited for distribution lines. One of them is hosted by National Grid that just got underway and another will be operated by American Electric Power that will get started in Columbus in September.

The practical effect of such progress could drastically curtail the possibility of blackouts. CEO Yurek says that if Con Edison had used superconductor cable, it could have avoided the type of power outage in July and August that lasted for 10 days in Queens. The hair thin wires can carry so much power that they could have absorbed the high demand.

The cost to apply the technology is also in line with that of copper wires, he adds. NSTAR just announced it is installing a 345 kilovolt system in the Boston area at a price tag of $11 million a mile. The alternative would be to insert additional conductors and keep the current voltage the same. Lower voltage that is more productive means lower costs, says Yurek, adding that the future returns must be viewed in light of system-wide solutions -- not on a cost per mile basis.

What's stopping utilities from doing this? "If you put out the world's first superconductor transmission project, everyone wants to see how it works," says Yurek. "It will work as advertised. We are convinced of this based on extensive testing, and it will work all the time. I believe this technology will spread quite rapidly over the next few years."

Economic Impediments

Superconductivity power equipment typically will be half the size and have half the energy losses compared to conventional copper technologies. The Energy Department says that about 2,200 miles of existing underground cables are quickly becoming outdated and could be replaced with high temperature superconductive lines.

Suppose a utility needs more transmission capacity but permitting new lines is denied by the local zoning board. With superconductivity technologies, utilities could use their existing rights-of-way and at least triple their current capacity. Or, regulators may want to promote the technology and agree to give utilities that make such investments the ability to recoup their costs and then to earn a fair rate of return.

"We continue to view superconductivity as a powerful enabler of the next-generation energy delivery system," says Kevin Kolevar, director of the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability at the US Department of Energy.

To be sure, economic and regulatory impediments need to be addressed. The uncertainty over federal regulations and the course of deregulation have caused utilities to curtail investments in new technologies and particularly in ones that could improve performance of the transmission grid. Utilities are simply concerned about cost recovery. For now, such longer term objectives are getting lost in the shuffle, particularly as companies focus on shoring up their balance sheets and allocate funds to more immediate needs.

The cost must still drop considerably for the technology to become more widespread. But the good news is that as added investment is made and newer prototypes are announced, commercialization will start to occur and the price tag will come down. Efforts are also underway to develop cheaper wire that does not contain silver, called a coated conductor. But such wires have a long way to go before they would be practical.

Now that reliability of the nation's transmission grid is in the spotlight, superconductivity could become part of America's lexicon. As the technology proves worthy and as more investment flows to build out the grid, it could also become a part of everyone's lives. Altogether, the Energy Department has allocated $57 million for research and development for such projects while industry has agreed to put up $60 million.

"Superconductivity can provide an invaluable tool to assist LIPA in contributing to provide a high level of reliability to its customers," says LIPA Chairman Richard Kessel. "During this heat wave, innovations like this make more sense than ever."

If the LIPA project performs as expected, it could be a harbinger of things to come in the transmission sector. And with the digital age advancing at a rapid pace, modernization of the grid has become a national priority.

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