• Energy Research

Abstract This paper analyzes the operating characteristics of a superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) for the frequency control of an islanded microgrid operation. In the grid-connected mode of a microgrid, an imbalance between power supply and demand is solved by a power trade with the upstream power grid. The difference in the islanded mode is a critical problem because the microgrid is isolated from any power grid. For this reason, the frequency control during islanded microgrid operation is a challenging issue. A test microgrid in this paper consisted of a wind power generator, a PV generation system, a diesel generator and a load to test the feasibility of the SMES for controlling frequency during islanded operation as well as the transient state varying from the grid-connected mode to the islanded mode. The results show that the SMES contributes well for frequency control in the islanded operation. In addition, a dual and a single magnet type of SMES have been compared to demonstrate the control performance. The dual magnet has the same energy capacity as the single magnet, but there are two superconducting coils and each coil has half inductance of the single magnet. The effectiveness of the SMES application with the simulation results is discussed in detail.