Fault Current Limited (FCL), an energy startup commercialising technology developed at Cardiff University, has secured a £635k ($988k) from the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).
The new funding will be used by FCL to further develop its “next generation” fault current limiter for sale to network operators and renewable energy generators. Fault current limiters are already in use across power grids, and are installed at the substation level to product the grid by absorbing the destructive nature of a fault, thus extending the life span of other components in the network.
FCL’s product differs from current fault current limiters as it is a permanent magnet device which requires no external power supply or back-up and recovers automatically when a fault is cleared. Studies in the US and Europe suggest that smart grid devices such as fault current limiters could save billions of dollars in replacement costs whilst simultaneously increasing power safety and quality.
FCL, a portfolio company of commercialisation firm Fusion IP, is founded on the work of Dr Jeremy Hall of the Wolfson Centre for Magnetics, based at Cardiff University’s School of Engineering.
Martin Ansell, chairman of FCL, said: “Governments, regulators and utilities around the world are faced with binding commitments to connect clean, renewable generation, to an ageing electrical infrastructure conceived more than 100 years ago. An enabling technology such as FCL’s innovative fault current limiter is essential in the quest to deliver reliable power and meet our clean energy challenges. We are pleased that DECC has recognised FCL’s value to the UK power industry and is supporting this UK product development.”
