Schenectady-based SuperPower Inc has successfully installed and tested a cryogenic refrigeration system at Niagara Mohawk’s North Albany Service Center for its Albany High-Temperature Superconducting (HTS) cable project.

The $26 million project, which is receiving $13 million in funding from the US Department of Energy, will use 350 m of superconducting cable to link two Niagara Mohawk substations at Riverside and Menands. Commissioning is expected to take place in the spring of 2006 before a second-generation HTS cable system is installed in June 2007.

The project will be the first test in a live power grid of superconducting technology. BOC Group built the cooling systems