NKT and THEVA Power Up the SuperLink Test System in Munich
NKT and the tape maker THEVA have powered up the prototype test system for SuperLink, a superconducting cable project in Munich. The test rig, energised in October 2024 with the local utility Stadtwerke München, is the proving ground for a planned 15 km link that would be the world’s longest superconducting power cable. Testing was set to run into the middle of 2025.
The test system proves the cable before the full link is built
In October 2024, NKT announced that the SuperLink prototype had entered test operation at the Menzing main substation in Munich, together with Stadtwerke München Infrastruktur. The prototype lets the partners qualify the cable, its terminations, and its cooling system before committing to the full route.
THEVA, based in Ismaning near Munich, supplies the superconducting tape for the project, while NKT builds the cable itself. The wider project team includes the industrial gas company Linde, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and the University of Applied Sciences Südwestfalen.
SuperLink would be the longest superconducting cable yet
As planned, SuperLink would run up to 15 km at 110 kV and carry up to 500 MW, cooled with liquid nitrogen to about −200 °C. That length would make it the longest superconducting power cable in the world, well beyond the shorter urban links installed to date.
The appeal for Munich is the same one that drives most city superconducting cable projects: a superconducting line carries far more power than a conventional cable of the same size, so a compact 110 kV link can move bulk power into the city centre without a new high-voltage corridor. Our cable anatomy explainer shows how such a cable is built and cooled. NKT reported that the test phase would run through the second quarter of 2025, and the project is tracked among the cable installations in our project tracker.