A Study on the Application Impacts on Korean Power System by Introducing SFCL

As power systems grow more complex and power demands increase, the fault current tends to gradually increase. In the near future, the fault current will exceed a circuit breaker rating for some substations, which is an especially important issue in the Seoul metropolitan area because of its highly meshed configuration. Currently, the Korean power system is regulated by changing the 154 ㎸ system configuration from a loop connection to a radial system, by splitting the bus where load balance can be achieved, and by upgrading the circuit breaker rating. A development project applying 154 ㎸ Superconducting Fault Current Limiter(SFCL) to 154 ㎸ transmission systems is proceeding with implementation slated for after 2010. In this paper, the resistive and inductive SFCLs are applied to re-duce the fault current in Korean power system and their technical and economic impacts are evaluated. The results show that the application of SFCL can eliminate the need to upgrade the circuit breaker rat-ing and the economic potential of SFCL is evaluated positively.