International Journal of Power Electronics and Drive System (IJPEDS) Vol. 6, No. 3, September 2015, pp. 524~537 ISSN: 2088-8694  524 Journal homepage: http://iaesjournal.com/online/index.php/IJPEDS Modeling and Simulation of Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage Systems Ashwin Kumar Sahoo*, Nalinikanta Mohanty**, Anupriya M* * Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, SSN College of Engineering, Chennai, India ** Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, SVCE, Chennai, India Article Info ABSTRACT Article history: Received Apr 9, 2015 Revised Jul 15, 2015 Accepted Jul 30, 2015 This paper aims to model the Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage System (SMES) using various Power Conditioning Systems (PCS) such as, Thyristor based PCS (Six-pulse converter and Twelve-pulse converter) and Voltage Source Converter (VSC) based PCS. Modeling and Simulation of Thyristor based PCS and VSC based PCS has been carried out. Comparison has also been carried out based on various criteria such as Total Harmonic Distortion (THD), active and reactive power control ability, control structure and power handling capacity. MATLAB/Simulink is used to simulate the various Power Conditioning Systems of SMES. Keyword: Energy Storage Power Conditioning Systems SMES Thyristor VSC Copyright © 2015 Institute of Advanced Engineering and Science. All rights reserved. Corresponding Author: Ashwin Kumar Sahoo, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, SSN College of Engineering, OMR, Kalavakam-603110, Chennai, India. Email: ashwinsahoo@ssn.edu.in 1. INTRODUCTION A Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) device is a dc current device that stores energy in the magnetic field. The dc current flowing through a superconducting wire in a large magnet creates the magnetic field. Generally it consists of:  Superconducting coil  Cryogenic system  Power Conversion/Conditioning System (PCS) with control and protection functions. The total efficiency of a SMES system can be very high since it does not require energy conversion from electrical to mechanical or chemical energy. Depending on the control loop of its power conversion unit and switching characteristics, the SMES system can respond very rapidly (MWs/milliseconds). The ability of injecting/absorbing real or reactive power can increase the effectiveness of the control, and enhance system reliability and availability. Consequently, SMES has inherently high storage efficiency about 90% or greater round trip efficiency. Comparing with other storage technologies, the SMES technology has a unique advantage in two types of applications:  Power system transmission control and stabilization  Power quality improvement. For instance, SMES can be configured to provide energy storage for Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) controllers at the transmission level or custom power devices at the distribution level. The