High temperature superconductivity (HTSC) hast he potential
todramatically impact many commercial markets, including the electric
power industry. Since 1987, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)
has supported aprogram to develop HTSC applications fort he power
industry. The purpose ofEPRI is to manage technical research and
development programs to improve power production, distribution, and use.
The institute is supported by the voluntary contributions ofs ome7 00
electric utilities and has over 600 utility technical experts as
advisors. One objectiveo f EPRI's HTSC program is to ed ucate utility
engineers andexecutives on the technical issues related to HTSC
materials and the supporting technologies needed for their application.
To accomplish this, Argonne National Laboratory was commissioned to
preparea series of monthly re ports that would explain th e
significanceo f recent advances in HTSC. Acomponent o f each report was
a tutorial on some aspect of the HTSC field. Topics ranged from the
various ways that thin films are deposited tot he mechanisms used to
operatem ajor cryogenic systems. The tutorials became very popularw
ithin the utility industry. Surprisingly, the reports also became
popular with scientists at universities, corporate labo ratories, and
thenational laboratories. A lthough these researchers are quite
experienced in one aspect of the technology, they are nots ostron g
inothers. Itw ast he diversity and thoroughness ofthe tutorials that
made them so valuable.
