Review of the Bechtel team's SMES design and future plans for a technology demonstration unit

This paper traces the evolution in the Bechtel Team's SMES design over the last decade. Special emphasis is placed in the last two years when not only some design advances took place, but critical components were also built and tested. A major outcome of this latest phase is the realization that self-supporting SMES is more economical than the earth-supported approach advocated for many years. The paper concludes with a description of SMES-1, a 1 MWh/500 MW utility demonstration unit of the CICC-based self-supported SMES.>