Development of Arduino Based Power Conditioning Unit for Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) System used as UPS for Load Leveling during Charging of Electric Vehicles

Abstract

With the advancements in Electric Vehicle (EV) technology, more and more EVs are entering into service and simultaneously the number of charging stations are also increasing. These charging stations are connected to the EVs for a small duration of time. Hence, as the number of EVs increases, the simultaneous charging of multiple EVs generates a peak active power demand for this duration. The available peak load compensation technologies such as fywheel storage, pumped hydro storage or Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) take a long time to respond and are not very efcient. With an operational efciency exceeding 90 % and quick reaction time (< 1 second), a Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) system can be a viable solution for this scenario. A SMES system generally consists of a superconducting coil system being charged during the low load/no load period and discharged during the peak demand, with the help of a power conditioning unit (PCU). This paper describes the development of various sub-systems of the SMES-PCU, such as a three-phase rectifer, bidirectional chopper unit, three-phase inverter and the controllers with a description of various modes of operation and sizing of components. The paper also includes the simulation of overall SMES-PCU with suitable assumptions, to present the operational characteristics of the integrated system.