Capacity-Control Optimization of SMES in Distribution Networks With Renewable Energy

The demand for electric power has grown rapidly due to social and economic developments. The limited capacity of distribution network lines in many remote areas has led power consumers to suffer greatly from voltage drops at the user terminal, which then lowers the voltage at the distribution network. An effective way to address the imbalance between supply and demand in these areas involves applying renewable-energy-distributed generation. Yet because distributed generation can be random and intermittent, this intervention will bring new problems and challenges to the grid. Energy storage devices have been widely applied to solve these problems. Among such devices, superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) has characteristics of a long recycle life and high conversion rate, making it suitable for distributed generation. In this paper, for a distribution network with distributed generation, SMES is used to improve the voltage stability of distribution network nodes and provide economical access to the interconnection of renewable energy. A joint scheduling method of SMES optimal capacity allocation and energy management is proposed in this paper.