Qualification of SuperRail: the first commercial superconducting cable system in the world to be operated on railway grid

The SuperRail project is the world’s first installation of a high-temperature superconducting (HTS) cable system for commercial operation in a railway electric grid. The aim is to increase traffic capacity and achieve national low-carbon emission targets by strengthening the railway grid. The project involves the development, manufacture, installation, and operation of an HTS DC cable system at Paris’ Montparnasse railways station. Due to limited available rights-of-way, conventional cable technologies are not feasible, making HTS cable technology the only viable solution for supplying power to the railway tracks in such a dense urban area. Two HTS cables are installed in parallel. Each one can carry 2.25 MW and support fault conditions of 67 kA for 100 ms due to their direct connection to the transmissions grid. In order to validate the HTS cable system design and the accessories performances, a complete 35-m HTS cable type test loop was installed and tested at the SNCF Railway Test Agency. This paper shows the results, including dielectric performance, current carrying capacity and fault current tests. The HTS cable system successfully passed all the tests, and the design has been fully qualified.