Design and Simulation of Supercapacitor Energy Storage System

STATCOMs are widely used to enhance power system stability. They can exchange reactive power with the power system, but they have limited ability to exchange real power because they don’t include energy storage devices. STATCOMs coupled with energy storage devices such as batteries have been introduced to improve their ability to exchange real power. However, batteries have a limitation in their maximum deliverable power because of the slow chemical process required to release their energy. The trend now is to use supercapacitor energy storage systems "SCESS" as energy storage for STATCOMS. Supercapacitors have lower energy storage but higher power exchanging capability compared to batteries. This paper presents the analysis, design, and control of a supercapacitor energy storage system (SCESS) for a STATCOM. A peak current mode controller is used to control the SCESS system. Simulation results of the SCESS system are presented which indicate excellent performance of the proposed SCESS system.