# Progress of the SuperRail Project in Paris and Qualification Results of the 35 m Prototype HTS Cable System

Kévin Berger, Gabriel Hajiri, Arnaud Allais, Jean-Maxime Saugrain, Nicolas Lallouet, Beate West, Hervé Caron, David Ferandelle, Sara Villagra, Saïd Aboudrar, et al.

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Kévin Berger, Gabriel Hajiri, Arnaud Allais, Jean-Maxime Saugrain, Nicolas Lallouet, et al. Progress of the SuperRail Project in Paris and Qualification Results of the 35 m Prototype HTS Cable System. 4th International Workshop on Cooling Systems for HTS Applications (IWC-HTS), Cryogenics and Superconductivity Society of Japan (CSSJ), Oct 2024, Matsue, Japan. hal-04752808

HAL Id: hal-04752808

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Submitted on 25 Oct 2024

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# Progress of the SuperRail project in Paris and qualification results of the 35 m prototype HTS cable system

Kévin Berger¹)*, Gabriel Hajiri¹), Arnaud Allais²), Jean-Maxime Saugrain²), Nicolas Lallouet²), Beate West²), Hervé Caron³), David Ferandelle³), Sara Villagra³), Saïd Aboudrar⁴), Louise Terrien⁵), Romain Goncalves⁵), Grégory Bouvier⁵), and Loïc Quéval⁶,⁷)

¹)Université de Lorraine, GREEN, F-54000 Nancy, France, ²)Nexans, France, ³)Département de la Traction Électrique, SNCF Réseau, F-93418 La Plaine Saint-Denis, France, ⁴)Agence d'Essai Ferroviaire, SNCF Voyageurs, 94407 Vitry Sur Seine, France, ⁵)Absolut System, Grenoble, France, ⁶)Université Paris-Saclay, CentraleSupélec, CNRS, Laboratoire de Génie Electrique et Electrotechnique de Paris, 91190 Gif-sur-Yvette, France, ⁷)Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Laboratoire de Génie Electrique et Electrotechnique de Paris, 75252 Paris, France

The SuperRail project, backed by the French government, will be the first installation of a high-temperature superconducting (HTS) cable system on a commercially operated railway electric grid (1). The project's goal is to develop, manufacture, install and operate of a HTS DC cable system at the Montparnasse railways station in Paris. The HTS technology provides here the only viable solution to increase the power supply from the railway substation to a group of railway tracks in such densely populated areas, strengthening and securing the railway grid, and contributing to the achievement of national low-carbon emission targets. Two 60 m long 1.5 kV-3.5 kA HTS DC cables made of 2G conductors will be installed in parallel. They are designed to meet stringent load chart requirements and to sustain a 67 kA-200 ms short-circuit current. Prior to the installation at Montparnasse, a complete 35-m HTS cable type test loop was installed and tested at the SNCF Railway Test Agency (SNCF-AEF). This system includes two terminations, one joint, and a cooling system. This paper provides a detailed description of the type test loop and the results of the comprehensive tests, including multiple cooling cycles, steady state operation at nominal current, high voltage withstand, and overcurrent fault behavior. The results confirm that the cable system met its design specifications, qualifying it for the SuperRail installation and for future railway projects.

## References:

1) A. Allais et al., "SuperRail-World-First HTS Cable to be Installed on a Railway Network in France," in *IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity*, vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 1-7, May 2024, Art no. 4802207, doi: 10.1109/TASC.2024.3356450.

**Keywords:** cooling system, railway network, superconducting cables, Turbo Brayton technology, qualification tests.

**Corresponding author**\*: kevin.berger@univ-lorraine.fr