KEPCO President Kim Jong-kap and LS Cable & System President Myung Roe-hyun join other notables in a ceremony to dedicate a project to commercialize a 1-km-long superconducting cable connecting Heungdeok and Shingal substations in Yongin, Gyeonggi-do. (Photo: KEPCO)

LS Cable & System (LS C&S) has succeeded in commercializing a super conductivity cable in cooperation with Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) for the first time in the world.

As eco-friendly projects become the subject of global attention, the size of the global superconducting market is predicted to surge to more than 1 trillion won in the next five years.

LS C&S’s commercializing a superconducting technology is considered to have the upper hand in the early control of the market.

A superconducting cable can send five to 10 times more power at a low voltage than the conventional cable. The superconducting cable employs a phenomenon in which the electric resistance of materials disappears at minus 196 degrees Celsius, so it causes almost no electricity loss in transmitting power.

LS C&S and four cable companies in the United States, EU, Japan and two other countries own superconducting technologies. But LS C&S’ commercializing a superconducting technology is the first such one.

A white paper released by the International Energy Agency last month, said Korea became the first country to succeed in commercializing superconducting technology. LS C&S and KEPCO have been conducting a test run on the technology since July prior to commercialization.

LS C&S superconducting cable.

Superconducting cables do not require separate transformers, so the size of substations can be reduced to one-tenth, thus saving installation and operation costs.

The technology can solve social conflicts surrounding facilities whose installation are shunned by neighborhood residents and allow the conventional substation sites to alter the purpose of use.

Superconducting cables can replace 3 meter-high electrical conduits with 1 meter-ones in the course of new city superconducting construction, thus reducing civil engineering costs. Replacing conventional copper cables with cables with the reinstating of conventional electrical conduits can increase electricity transmission amounts, LS C&S said.

LS Cable & System President Myung Roe-hyun said, “Commercialization of superconducting cables will bring about a paradigm shift in the electricity industry in which European and Japanese companies control, allowing Korea to take an upper hand.”

LS C&S will aggressively enter foreign markets in cooperation with KEPCO, he added.

On the same day, KEPCO President Kim Jong-kap said the power company make efforts to make the superconducting sector one of the nation’s growth engines and help Korea take a competitive edge in the global energy market in accordance with the government’s globalization polices beyond self-sufficiency in the raw materials, parts and equipment fields.

KEPCO will play a pivotal role in creating a virtuous cycle of the superconducting industry through continued technology development in the future, he added.

Employees at LS C&S work at a superconducting cable production line. (Photos: LS C&S)