The Holbrook Superconductor Project is the world's first production superconducting transmission

Electric power transmission

Electric-power transmission is the bulk transfer of electrical energy, from generating power plants to Electrical substations located near demand centers...

 power cable. The lines were commissioned in 2008. The suburban Long Island

Long Island

Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...

 electrical substation

Electrical substation

A substation is a part of an electrical generation, transmission, and distribution system. Substations transform voltage from high to low, or the reverse, or perform any of several other important functions...

 is fed by about 600-meter-long underground cable system consists of about 99 miles of high-temperature superconductor wire manufactured by American Superconductor

American Superconductor

American Superconductor is an American energy technologies company based in Devens, Massachusetts specializing in the design and manufacture of power systems and superconducting wire...

, installed underground and chilled with liquid nitrogen

Liquid nitrogen

Liquid nitrogen is nitrogen in a liquid state at a very low temperature. It is produced industrially by fractional distillation of liquid air. Liquid nitrogen is a colourless clear liquid with density of 0.807 g/mL at its boiling point and a dielectric constant of 1.4...

 to minimize power loss in the transmission lines.

The superconductor is bismuth strontium calcium copper oxide

Bismuth strontium calcium copper oxide

Bismuth strontium calcium copper oxide, or BSCCO , is a family of high-temperature superconductors having the generalized chemical formula Bi2Sr2Can-1CunO2n+4+x, with n=2 being the most commonly studied compound...

 (BSCCO) which superconducts at liquid nitrogen temperatures. Other parts of the system include a 13000 gal liquid nitrogen storage tank, a Brayton

Brayton cycle

The Brayton cycle is a thermodynamic cycle that describes the workings of the gas turbine engine, basis of the airbreathing jet engine and others. It is named after George Brayton , the American engineer who developed it, although it was originally proposed and patented by Englishman John Barber...

 Helium refrigerator

Refrigeration

Refrigeration is a process in which work is done to move heat from one location to another. This work is traditionally done by mechanical work, but can also be done by magnetism, laser or other means...

, and a number of cryostat

Cryostat

A cryostat is a device used to maintain cold cryogenic temperatures. Low temperatures may be maintained within a cryostat by using various refrigeration methods, most commonly using cryogenic fluid bath such as liquid helium. Hence it is usually assembled into a vessel, similar in construction...

s which manage the transition between cryogenic and ambient temperatures.

The project was funded by the United States Department of Energy

United States Department of Energy

The United States Department of Energy is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material...

, and operates as part of the Long Island Power Authority

Long Island Power Authority

The Long Island Power Authority or LIPA [ "lie-pah" ], a municipal subdivision of the State of New York, was created under the Long Island Power Act of 1985 to acquire the Long Island Lighting Company 's assets and securities...

power grid.