“The New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) along with Tokyo Electric, Sumitomo Electric Industries, and Mayekawa MFG, began the first demonstration project in Japan for transmitting electricity to the home using high temperature, superconductive cables on October 29. The trials are being conducted at the Tokyo Electric Power Asahi power station in Kanagawa Pref., and members of the media were invited to visit the project.

The project is part of the NEDO High Temperature Superconductive Cable Demonstration Project (2007-2013). The cable was connected to a Tokyo Electric Power direct affiliate, and operation for about 1 year proved its operational ability.

The superconductive cable was attached to 1 of the 3 inverters at the Asahi substation and power is now being supplied to 50,000 households. The superconductive cable used for the project is 240 meters long with a 3 strand core. The 3 superconductive cables are housed in an insulated steel tube with a diameter of 145 mm. The inside of the steel tube is filled with liquid nitrogen for cooling, The inside of the cable is cooled to -196℃ creating a superconductive state. The liquid nitrogen inside the cable is circulated at a speed of 40 liters a minute, and is cooled with 6 freezers. About 10,000 liters of liquid nitrogen supplied by Iwatani is used.

The superconductive cable used for this project gets by with a loss of 1/33 that of the existing cable during the transmission.

The target of commercialization is set for 2020 to be attained through further involvement in the development of technology such as a high efficiency cooling system and by increasing the current-carrying capacity.”