Design and cost estimation of superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) systems for power grids

Abstract

This paper presents a preliminary study of Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) system design and cost analysis for power grid application. A brief introduction of SMES systems is presented in three aspects, history of development, structure and application. Several SMES systems are designed using the state of art superconductors and have taken into account their electromagnetic properties. The magnets of the SMES systems are designed using a global optimization algorithm. Both solenoid and toroid configurations are designed and compared. The capacities of SMES systems are designed on different scales including kJ-, MJ- and GJ-class for different applications. Finally the costs are calculated based on the commercial price of superconductors. The result indicates that the solenoid configuration is suitable for kJ-scale SMES, while the toroid configuration is suitable for GJ-scale SMES.