Integrated SMES Technology for Modern Power System and Future Smart Grid

Superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) technology has been progressed actively for use in modern power system. Principal application schemes of a sole SMES system, a hybrid energy storage system (HESS) consisting of small-scale SMES and other commercial energy storage systems (ESSs), a distributed SMES (DSMES) system, and a distributed HESS (DHESS) are presented and compared. The concept of the SMES-based HESS provides an economical way to apply medium-scale SMES systems in daily load leveling and to apply small-scale SMES systems in power quality improvement. A dc power distribution network case with superconducting dc cables and SMES devices is conceptually designed to evaluate the performance of the proposed four SMES application schemes. The results show that the novel concept of the SMES-based DHESS can be particularly expected to achieve efficient and economical power management. Finally, the application prospects and possible schemes implanting SMES devices for power generation, transmission, distribution and utilization are explored for use in future smart grid.