The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has provided more than US$12 million in funding to American Superconductor Corp. (www.amsc.com) under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to complete the following ongoing superconductor Smart Grid projects:

• AMSC is receiving $4.8 million in additional funding to develop a three-phase 138-kV fault current limiter (FCL) using the company's 344 superconductors. This FCL will feature a proprietary Siemens-developed, low-inductance coil technology that makes the FCL invisible to the grid until it switches to a resistive state. AMSC is serving as project manager and wire supplier. The team also includes Southern California Edison, Siemens AG, Nexans and Los Alamos National Laboratory. In total, the DOE is providing nearly $8 million in funding for this project.

• AMSC is receiving $7.6 million in additional funding for the second phase of its superconductor power cable project with Long Island Power Authority (LIPA). This will be a transmission voltage (138-kV) extension of the superconductor cable system that was commissioned in LIPA's grid in April 2008. The extension uses AMSC's second-generation high-temperature-superconductor (HTS) wire, branded as 344 superconductors. AMSC is serving as project manager and wire supplier, Nexans is the cable manufacturer and Air Liquide Advanced Technologies U.S. LLC is providing the cryogenics system. In total, the DOE is providing more than $12 million for this project.

AMSC's awards were part of a $47 million “Smart Grid Demonstration” package announced by the DOE. According to the DOE announcement, “The $47 million in Recovery Act awards announced today will support existing projects that are advancing demonstration-scale Smart Grid technologies which will play an important role in modernizing the country's electricity grid.” In addition to the $12 million in funding for AMSC's projects, an additional $8 million was awarded to another superconductor FCL project.