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FASTGRID @ EUCAS 2019

At the recent European Conference on Applied Superconductivity 2019 in Glasgow, FASTGRID was well represented with 12 poster,  presentation or invited contribution and 1 booth from our industry partner THEVA. The contributions from FASTGRID at EUCAS 2019 are listed below.

- Optical fiber sensing for fast hotspot detection in SFCL - Arooj Akbar, EPFL, Lausanne

- Study of CC tapes damaged during fault current limitation at 66 K - Marcela Pekarcikova, STUBA, Bratislava

- Low temperature bonding of non-stabilized coated conductors tapes, Edita Mikulášová, STUBA, Bratislava

- Growth of CSD low fluorine YBCO superconducting layers on sapphire substrates - Cornelia Pop, ICMAB, Barcelona

- Current flow diverted coated conductors for advanced fault current limiters, Pedro Barusco, ICMAB

- New opportunities to enhance vortex pinning in solution derived YBCO thin films, X. Obradors, ICMAB

- Advances of the EC Project FASTGRID, Pascal Tixador (Coordinator FASTGRID), Invited Poster

- Development of 150 V/m HTS conductor for fault current limitation in high voltage DC networks, Guillaume Escamez, SGI

- Hot spot creation in coated conductors used for fault current limitation, Fedor Gömöry, IEE, Bratislava

- YBCO Coated Conductors obtained by slot die, Roxana Vlad, Oxolutia, Bratislava

- HTS coated conductor current limiting performance at temperatures lower than 77 K, Moran Mosat, IEE Bratislava

- Additional stabilization of REBCO coated conductors for Fault Current Limiters, Michal Vojenciak, IEE, Bratislava

Amelie Berthe joins FASTGRID at SGI

Amelie Berthe obtained her Masters in Electrical Engineering from INSA Lyon and went on to work as an R and D engineer at SGI on optimization and techno-economic analysis of SFCL. Subsequently she worked as a project leader on E-mobility at ENEDIS with focus on investigating the impact of electrical vehicles on distribution networks. Amelie joins FASTGRID as an experienced and very competent electrical engineer on optimization of SFCL design and testing procedures. We wish her all the best in her endeavours.

Newsletter #3 is out

The third newsletter of the FASTGRID project can be downloaded here. This new edition highlights the work carried out by the company OXOLUTIA concerning the innovative Current Flow Diverter (CFD) concept.

EPFL welcomes new PhD student

Arooj AKBAR joined the FASTGRID project as a new PhD student at EPFL on February 1, 2019. After graduating from the University of Nottingham, she had her first research experience at EPFL as an intern and then worked on IEEE publications focusing on power quality and power factor correction at Lahore University of Management and Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan. We are pleased to welcome Arooj to the consortium.

Prof. Tixador edits a new book

Pascal Tixador, coordinator of the FASTGRID project, has just edited a new book entitled “Superconducting Fault Current Limiter” with many contributions of FASTGRID partners. This book is for graduate students, post-docs, researchers, electrical engineers and others even inexperienced but interested in superconductivity. Basics of superconductivity are given.

CNRS welcomes new project manager

Julie DJEBRANI joined CNRS as the new project manager of FASTGRID on October 1, 2018. After completing a master’s degree in foreign languages, Julie worked at the international office of several higher education and research institutions for 4 years. This is the first time she has the opportunity to manage a European project such as FASTGRID. She will be responsible for ensuring an efficient management of the project and the consortium.

CNRS welcomes new PhD student

Alexandre ZAMPA obtained his M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from Grenoble INP. He started his PhD on October 1, 2018 at G2Elab and Institut Néel under the supervision of Pascal Tixador. As part of FASTGRID, he will contribute to the improvement of the conductor so that it presents a very high electric field under limiting conditions while remaining protected in the event of a low prospective fault current (so-called hot-pot problem). We are very glad to welcome Alexandre to the consortium and wish him all the best for his PhD.

Welcome Alexander Buchholz

A new member, Mr. Alexander Buchholz,  started on the 16.07.2018 in FASTGRID to perform detailed analysis with cradle to grave approach on environmental impact and energy balance of high performance superconducting tapes. Mr. Buchholz will be working in the well known  Institute for Technology Assessment and System Analysis at KIT in Karlsruhe with its long established competence in investigations of environmental impact of scientific innovations. We welcome Mr Buchholz in the group and wish him all the best for his work.

The Biannual edition of the FASTGRID Newsletter is out

FASTGRID published its second newsletter in July 2018 and it can be accessed under the following link. The newsletter is planned on a biannual basis with alternating focus on material development and device development. As the project starts into its second year and picks up pace with progress being made and more results and publications being published, the newsletter will get more ever more interesting and informational.

Bringing Renewables to the Power Grid

Pascal Tixador, the project coordinator was interviewed by Sandrine Ceurstemont for an article released in the Horzizon Magazine - EU research and innovation on applications of REBCO tapes and Superconducting Fault Current Limiters.

To read the full article, please use the link here.

Newsletter #1

Biannual FASTGRID newsletters focussed on the research highlights of the project will be published on the fastgrid website and are planned to be sent to industry stake holders assumed to benefit most for the results of the research and development achieved within this project. The first newsletter is out. Take a look! FASTGRID Newsletter #1

Contributions at EUCAS 2017

FASTGRID was represented at the EUCAS 2017 in Geneva with multiple contributions in form of poster and oral contributions from its partners.

EUCAS Poster - FASTGRID

Additionally, two papers were also submitted about the current work within FASTGRID from particpating institutes. These contributions will be available for download shortly.

ICMAB welcomes new PhD Student

Pedro Barusco joined ICMAB-CSIC from the 16.09.2017 and started work on his PhD thesis in the group of Prof Xavier Obradors on Characterization of Coated Conductors on Sapphire substrates for optimizing superconducting and quench properties. A part of his work shall also focus on oxygenation and characterization of CFD samples. He already presented his first results at the third FASTGRID project meeting in Barcelona. We would like to take this opportunity to welcome him in the group and wish him success for future work.

PhD student at STUBA for FASTGRID....

Martina Klimentova obtained her M.Sc. degree in Materials Science from Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Faculty of Materials Science and Technology in Trnava. Her diploma thesis was focused on numeric analysis of stress-strain distribution during mechanical loading of superconducting tapes.  She started her PhD. study on the 1st September 2017 in the group of Marcela Pekarcikova and will contribute in frame of project FASTGRID to the improvement of CC tapes in term of thermal stabilization.

CNRS-G2Elab welcomes engineer in instrumentation and experimentation

Arij CHERIF, an engineer in electrical engineering graduated from the National Higher Engineering School of Tunis, commonly known as ENSIT, in Tunisia. We are very pleased to have Arij contributing to the research on the superconducting fault current limiter on HVDC grids together with teams from CNRS and G2Elab. Arij will actively contribute to all the measurements made in Grenoble and to the improvements of the conductor in terms of electric field. Arij will begin in October 2017 and we wish her all the success for her PhD.

EPFL welcomes new PhD student

Jiabin Yang obtained his M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Electrical Engineering. During his studies, he obtained exposure to HVDC Superconducting Fault current limiters applied to 20 kV grid systems. Jiabin also published his research results as peer reviewed papers in a number of leading journals on cryogenics. He started his PhD on the 01.09.2017 at EPFL in the group of Dr. Bertrand Dutoit and will contribute to FASTGRID within the scope of the project and his PhD work. We welcome Jiabin Yang to the consortium and wish him success in the completing his work.

Sep 2017

Scientists from KIT, THEVA, ICMAB, RSE, SUPERGRID will be presenting their newest results and findings including work performed within FASTGRID at the EUCAS in Geneva in September 2017.  Remember to check out the THEVA booth at EUCAS to get more information on our project fastgrid.

  • Eucas 2017

KIT welcomes new Postdoc in FASTGRID

Mayraluna Lao, M.Sc. Physics, obtained her doctorate in technical physics from Vienna University of Technology. She has several years of hands on experience with synthesis and characterization of coated conductors for power transmission and magnet applications. Her research has been awarded at the ASC 2016 in Denver with the best student paper award (third place) and the ESAS young research award at the EUCAS 2015 in Lyon. We are pleased to have May strengthen the superconducting thin films group at KIT and wish her all the success in FASTGRID and at KIT.

July 2017 - Confluence Introduced

Confluence software is successfully introduced to the fastgrid members. The newly introduced software will be used for data exchange between the partners and jointly creating documents. It shall make communication and cooperation within fastgrid more effective. The software is hosted on a server based at KIT, Karlsruhe. We look forward to a strengthened cooperation between the members and look forward to feedback on this step towards better communication.

  • Confluence

July 2017 - Video Conference - 2

Fastgrid conducted its second video conference (Goto Meeting) on the 11.07.2017. Members from all 12 institutes participated in the video conference and held short presentations of 5 minutes with 3 slides. Information on material development, characterization (electrical, and physical)  as well long length tapes was presented and discussed. The topic of continued cooperation across work packages was raised. The video conference was organized by CNRS.

June 2017, RSE Milan, Italy welcomes new Colleague

RSE, the leading italian research institute on power systems and clean energy transition, hired Angela Olchini who started working from the 01.06.2017 on our joint project FASTGRID. Please join us in welcoming Angela to the consortium and we, the FASTGRID team wish her all the best in her efforts at RSE to make the project a success! 

April 2017 - Website goes Live

The fastgrid website is live since 01.04.2017. Members and public can get familiar with the upcoming internal events as well as conference participations of interest to the community. The website is also a source for important document download pertaining to project meetings organized by KIT.

STUBA welcomes new scientist

The Institute of Materials, well known for its expertise on physical characterization for advanced materials, hired a new scientist, Dr Pavol Priputen, to work on FASTGRID starting 01.04.2017. Pavol will be mostly involved in sample optimization by means of laser diffraction and interference lithographic techniques. Please join us in welcoming Pavol Priputen in the consortium and we wish him all the best!

January 2017 - FASTGRID Launched

The newly announced European Project under the framework programme Horizon 2020 started on the 01.01.2017. There are 12 partners from 8 nations participating in research and innovation on superconducting fault current limiters for next generation energy grids and storage devices.