| The development of superconductive materials is introduced. Superconductors have been considered of revolutionary influence in electrical engineering. However, the superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) technology did not attract much attention until early 1970's. The SMES technology is attractive for its high efficiency and fast response, but also dubious for the capital investment. Research made in the USA and Japan resulted in several conceptual designs for utility scale SMES systems. Experiments on power system models proved that SMES systems offer other benefits in addition to energy storage. Economic evaluations showed that the SMES is competitive with pumped hydro. In the component design, the adopting of a warm structure and the optimization of a superconducting magnet led to a significant cost reduction. A power flow program is used to verify the application of a SMES plant on the Taiwan power system. |
