Application of graphene based supercapacitor in DC-Microgrids

Abstract

Developments in renewable resource technology, advancement in power electronics and upgradation in storage element technology is leading to formation of DC-Microgrids. Graphene is a single layer of carbon allotrope graphite which is packed in honeycomb structure. Graphene offers high surface area and high energy density. Graphene is extensively used in supercapacitor development as an electrode material. In a DC-microgrid a combination of supercapacitor and battery is used as a storage element to take care of transient and steady-state disturbances in DC-link power. While meeting the dc link power demand, the supercapacitor supplies the transient power component of the dc-link power demand whereas the battery will supply the average power component of the dc-link demand. In this work a closed loop controller is proposed for controlling the power flow through a graphene-based supercapacitor and battery energy storage system for meeting the dc-link power demand in a DC-microgrid. The above proposed system is studied in MATLAB/SimPowerSystems softwares alongwith the hardware results obtained from the setup comprising of battery and supercapacitor.