Design of a 0.2 MJ conduction cooled Nb3Sn SMES system

Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) system can be used to develop methods for improving power quality where a short interruption of power could lead to a long and costly shutdown. The commercialized μ-SMES concepts are based on NbTi technology. Nb3Sn has excellent superconducting properties but unfortunately it is extremely brittle and usually the coils are made with the time consuming wind and react method. On the other hand, a Nb3Sn magnet enables a coil operating temperature around 10 K. Considerable advances in cryocooler technology have been made during the past ten years - pushed partly by the progress of HTS technology. Therefore a Nb3Sn coil with a reliable cryocooler unit could be a preferable alternative when designing different kind of magnet systems. Based on these viewpoints a cryogen free Nb3Sn SMES system operating at 10 K has been designed in order to compensate a short term loss of power.