Double pancake superconducting coil design for maximum magnetic energy storage in small scale SMES systems

Electrical power quality and stability is an important issue nowadays and technology of Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage systems, SMES, has brought real power storage capability to power systems. Therefore, optimum SMES design to achieve maximum energy with the least length of tape has been quite a matter of concern. This paper provides an approach to design optimization of solenoid and toroid types of SMES, ensuring maximum possible energy storage. The optimization process, based on Genetic Algorithm, calculates the operating current of superconducting tapes through intersection of a load line with the surface indicating the critical current variation versus the parallel and perpendicular components of magnetic flux density. FLUX3D simulations of SMES have been utilized for energy calculations. Through numerical analysis of obtained data, formulations have been obtained for the optimum dimensions of superconductor coil and maximum stored energy for a given length and cross sectional area of superconductor tape.