Development of a 3 MJ/750 kVA SMES system

Research and development on superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) system have been carried out to realize efficient electric power management for several decades. Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI) has developed a 3 MJ/750 kVA SMES system to improve power quality in sensitive electric loads. It consists of an IGBT based power converter, NbTi mixed matrix Rutherford cable superconducting magnet and a cryostat with HTS current leads. A computer code was developed to find the parameters of the SMES magnet which used minimum amount of superconductors for the same energy storage capability, and the 3 MJ SMES magnet was designed based upon that. This paper describes the fabrication and experimental results of the 3 MJ/750 kVA SMES system.