SUPERCONDUCTING MAGNETIC

ENERGY STORAGE
SYSTEM

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 Contents
Introduction
History
What is SMES
Components of SMES
Operating principle
Application
Advantages and disadvantages
Conclusion

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 Introduction
 RENEWABLE energy sources will have a key role in
supplying energy in the future.
 There are several issues regarding large scale integration of
new renewable into the power system.
 One of the problems is the security of supply.
 These energy sources will provide energy, or not provide,
independent of the demand.
 The output power can also have relatively large variations
within a short time span.
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 A solution to this problem is the concept of energy
storage, and there are several different concepts.
 There are devices which can store large amounts of
energy, but do not react so fast.
 On the other end there are fast acting devices which store
smaller amounts of energy. Superconducting Magnetic
Energy Storage (SMES) is placed in this group.

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 Historical Review Of SMES
1969: first concept was proposed by Ferrierin in France.
1971: research performed in university of Wisconsin in the US
This research led to construction of the first SMES device
High temperature super conductors (HTS) appeared
commercially in late 90 s
1997: first signifying size HTS – SMES was developed by
American super conductors.

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 Superconductivity
Superconductivity is a phenomenon of exactly zero electrical
resistance and expulsion of magnetic fields occurring in certain
materials when cooled below a characteristic critical
temperature.
• Discovered by Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes on
April 8, 1911 in Leiden, South Holland.

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 SMES SYSTEM
• Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) is an
energy storage system that stores energy in the form of dc
electricity by passing current through the superconductor and
stores the energy in the form of a dc magnetic field.

•The conductor for carrying the current operates at cryogenic

temperature where it becomes superconductor and thus has
virtually no resistive losses as it produces the magnetic field.

• The magnetic field is created by flow of direct current through

the coil

•.SMES systems are highly efficient; the efficiency is greater than

98%. 8
 Components of SMES system
 Superconducting coil
with the magnet

 The power conditioning

system (PCS)

 The cryogenic system

 The control unit

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 Superconducting Coil
 Main part of a SMES system

 Most superconducting coils are wound using conductors which

are comprised of many fine filaments of a niobium-titanium
(NbTi) alloy embedded in a copper matrix.

 The Size of the coil depends

upon the energy storage require-
ment .
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 Power Conditioning System
The power conditioning system uses an inverter/ rectifier to
transform alternating current (AC) power to direct current or
convert DC back to AC power.

An ac/dc PCS is used for two purposes:

• One is to convert electric energy from dc to ac.

• The other is to charge and discharge the coil.

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Interface between the superconducting magnet and AC
power system.
• Three configurations available:
 Thyristor based PCS
 Voltage source converter based PCS
 Current source converter based PCS

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 Cryogenic Unit
The SMES coil must be maintained at a temperature sufficiently
low to maintain a superconducting state. Commercial SMES
temperature is about 4.5 K.
Reaching and maintaining this temperature is accomplished by a
special cryogenic refrigerator that uses helium as the coolant or
liquid nitrogen in case of HTS

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 The refrigerator consists of one or more compressors for
gaseous helium and a vacuum enclosure called a “cold-
box”, which receives the compressed, ambient-temperature
helium gas and produces liquid helium/nitrogen for cooling
the coil
 Since it affect the overall efficiency and cost of SMES
system, the loss components such as cold to warm current
leads, ac current, conduction and radiation etc. should be
minimized to achieve a higher efficient and less costly
SMES system
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 Control system
 Establishes a link between power demands from the grid and
power flow to and from the SMES coil.

Receives dispatch signals from the power grid and status of

the coil

 Maintains system safety and sends system status information

to the operator.

 Modern systems are tied to the internet to provide remote

observation and control.

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SMES System

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 Operation Of SMES
 There are three different modes of operations of the SMES coil :-

• Charging mode
• Stand-by mode
• Discharging mode

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 Operating Principle

• The operation of SMES is based on the fact the a current

will continue to flow in a superconductor even after the
voltage across it has been removed.

• A superconducting coil that is cooled below its critical

superconducting temperature has negligible (zero)
resistance. Thus the current will continue to flow in it.

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• The coil carries a current at any state of charge

• Charging Phase: Since the current flows only in one

direction, the PCS must produce a positive voltage across the
coil to store energy. This increases the current.

• Discharging Phase: the PCS are adjusted to make the system

look like a load across the coil by producing a negative
voltage causing the coil to discharge

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 Applications Of SMES
Paper industry
Motor vehicle assembly
Petrochemical Refineries
Chemical & pharmaceutical Companies

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 Advantages of SMES
SMES systems have the ability of fast response.

They can switch from charge to discharge state (vice versa)

within seconds.

The absence of moving parts and high efficiency are some

additional advantages.

It can be deployed in places where other technologies such as

battery system or compressed air are not feasible.

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 Common Challenges
Main drawback of the SMES technology is the need of large
amount power to keep the coil at low temperature, combined
with the high overall cost for the employment of such unit.

To achieve commercially useful levels of storage, around

1 GW /h a SMES installation would need a loop of around 100
miles (160 km).

Another problem is the infrastructure required for an

installation.
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 Market Analysis
It is estimated that, over 100 MW of SMES units are now
operating in worldwide.
.
At the larger scale, the projected development of a 100 MWh
load leveling system could be implemented during 2020-30.

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 Conclusion
• With the advancement in the science of superconductor
technology , cost of installation of the SMES system is
eventually going to be comparable to that of the existing storage
technologies.

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Hence, it will promote this system which is capable of
discharging larger amount of energy for short period of time
thus helping with dynamic performance.

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