A feasibility study on HTS SMES applications for power quality enhancement through both software simulations and hardware-based experiments

Superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) which promises the efficiency of more than 95% and fast response becomes a competitive energy storage device. Because of its advantages. SMES can provide benefit as a power quality enhancement device to an utility especially in connection with renewable energy sources. In this paper, a software simulation and an experiment aiming for power quality enhancement are reported. The utility was referred to Ulleung Island in Korea which had one wind power generation system. The simulation was performed using power system computer aided design/electromagnetic transient including DC (PSCAD/EMTDC) and power-hardware-in-the-loop simulation (PHILS) was implemented to monitor the operational characteristics of SMES when it was connected to utility. This study provides a highly reliable simulation results, and the feasibility of a SMES application is discussed. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.