  We present a detailed analysis of {\it excited} cosmic string solutions which
possess superconducting currents. These currents can be excited inside the
string core, and - if the condensate is large enough - can lead to the
excitations of the Higgs field. Next to the case with global unbroken symmetry,
we discuss also the effects of the gauging of this symmetry and show that
excited condensates persist when coupled to an electromagnetic field. The
space-time of such strings is also constructed by solving the Einstein
equations numerically and we show how the local scalar curvature is modified by
the excitation. We consider the relevance of our results on the cosmic string
network evolution as well as observations of primordial gravitational waves and
cosmic rays.
