In December 2018 Taiyo Nippon Sanso (TNSC) supplied Neon-refrigerant Turbo-Brayton Freezer for the Russian project to verify a superconducting current limiter and started examinations using the freezer from October 2019.

The superconducting current limiter is a device to interrupt a fault current caused by leakage or short circuit and is assumed to be attached to the transmitting line of power plants. Although the project still remains at a stage of verification, there is a possibility to avoid an excessive current at low cost. To this end, research activities are on the way now. The refrigerator is used to maintain the superconductive state of the current limiter.

In 2017, TNSC received an order for three units of Turbo Brayton Refrigerator with a freezing capacity of 2kW from Moscow Municipal Public Power Corporation through SuperOx (SO) which is a Russian manufacturer of high temperature superconductive cables. In December 2018, TNSC built up the freezer as a refrigerator of superconducting current limiter for 220kV inside the transformer substation of Moscow Municipal Power Corporation. After the test running of the entire verification system and the completion of connection to the power system they started to use it for commercial purposes locally from October 2019.

TNSC developed a neon-refrigerant turbo-Brayton refrigerator with a capacity of 2kW in NEDO’s project named “Technological Development of Yttriium-Based Superconducting Power Equipment” which was implemented from 2008 to 2012. It was launched as a product under the name of “NeoKelvin Turbo 2kW” in 2013. It was followed by commercialization of 10kW type for refrigeration in use for the verification of high-temperature superconducting transmitting cable delivered in Japan and abroad.