RESEARCH ARTICLE Enhancement of tidal generators by superconducting energy storage and Jaya-based sliding-mode controller Ahmed M. Othman 1,2 1 Electrical Power and Machines Department, Faculty of Engineering, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt 2 Faculty of Energy Systems and Nuclear Science (FESNS), Ontario Technology University (ONTechU), Oshawa, Ontario, Canada Correspondence Ahmed M. Othman, Electrical Power and Machines Department, Faculty of Engineering, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt. Email: ahmed_othman80@yahoo.com Summary This article presents a novel control technique of Jaya-based super-sliding con- troller that is applied on superconducting magnetic energy storage system (SCMES). The SCMES will be integrated to operate with tidal turbine genera- tors (TTGs). The penetration of TTGs has recently grown due to distributed generation contributions to the energy sector. To alleviate the potential system instability due to TTG dynamic performance, SCMES is connected to TTG to support the dynamic operational conditions. SCMES is implemented to act quickly during both cases of power generation and absorption, so it can realize any required mismatch between the supply and load power at dynamic tran- sient periods. To enhance such capability, this article proposes the application of Jaya-based super-sliding control technique to control and tune the system dynamic gains. The proposed technique implements incorporated co-operative algorithms using enhanced Jaya competitive algorithm and super-sliding method to facilitate the exchange of energy between the SCMES, the TTG, and the power network. It allows smooth dynamic performance, power quality enhancement, and robust dynamic reference tracking. Jaya-based super-sliding controller is developed and proposed for accurate and reliable control and tunning of system parameters. The proposed controller ensures the superb per- formance of the synergy of SCMESs and TTGs. Digital simulations have vali- dated the effectiveness of the proposed system with the optimal dynamic parameters and minimization of the global control error. KEYWORDS control, distributed, optimization, renewable 1 | INTRODUCTION Recent power networks are developed through a combi- nation of several renewable energy resources (RESs) and energy storage systems as hybrid systems that have gained the attention of researchers in recent study. 1-4 Tidal turbine generator (TTG) is a major resource of RESs that uses the ocean and sea energy, and shows much promising improvement to the resilience of the energy sector. 5-7 Ocean and sea energy are totally considered as renewables and clean, especially the occupation of oceans and seas is estimated by 68%-72% of the total surface of earth to contain massive energy contributions. 8 TTG is one of the most suitable renewables for power systems interconnection and applications. Tidal turbines can be integrated to the power networks to achieve reliable and resilient operation to supply demands. In addition, TTGs are able to handle variable operating conditions Received: 12 May 2020 Revised: 29 June 2020 Accepted: 6 July 2020 DOI: 10.1002/er.5790 Int J Energy Res. 2020;1–18. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/er © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 1