Studies of power conditioning circuits for superconductive magnetic energy store

The superconductive magnetic energy store (SMES) approach to utility-load leveling has the potential for very high energy conversion efficiency and fast response to changes in load demands. It can be used to improve utility system operation economics and system stabilities. The power-conditioning circuit interfacing an SMES and a utility network consists of thyristor or gate-turn-off (GTO) device bridges of the combinations of thyristor bridges and GTO bridges. The special requirements for power-conditioning circuits are discussed, and an experimental model system for testing the performance of the proposed circuits is described. The experimental studies concern power transfer of the model system, current balance control, independent real (P) and reactive (Q) power control, online numeric P-Q measurement, and protection of the SMES system. The proposed GTO circuit topology appears to satisfactorily provide independent real and reactive power control and maintain the high efficiency and fast response properties of the SMES system.<>